Cosimo said the Pope was an old Man but he had begun an enterprize as if he had been a Boy To the Venetian Embassadors who came to Florence with the Embassadors of Alfonso to complain of that Commonwealth putting his hat off to them he demanded the colour of his hair they told him it was gray he replyed in time your Senators will be of the same colour Not many hours before his death his Wife seing him shut his eyes enquired why he did so and he told her to use them Some Citizens after his return complaining to him that the City would be depopulated and God Almighty offended if he banished so many wealthy and Religious Men he told them the City had better be depopulated than destroyed That two yards of Cloth were enough to keep a Man from the cold and that States were not to be preserved by the beads a Man carried in his hand These last expressions gave his Enemies occasion to calumniate him as a person that was a greater lover of himself than his Country and one that took more care of this World than the next Many other of his wise sayings might be inserted but being unnecessary they are omitted Cosimo was likewise a great lover and advancer of learned Men upon which score he entertained in Florence Argiropolo a Grecian as learned as any in his time that by him the youth of Florence might be instructed in the Greek tongue and in several of his Tenets He entertained likewise in his House Marcileo Ficino a great Patron of the Platonick Philosophy whom he loved so entirely and that he might follow his studies with more convenience he gave him a house near his own Palace at Caraggi So that his prudence his beneficence his success and his way of living made him be belov'd and feared among the Citizens and much esteemed by all Princes of Europe Whereby he left such a foundation to his posterity that by their virtue they might equal him by their fortune transcend him and obtain as much honor as he had in Florence in all the Cities and Countries of Christendom Nevertheless towards the latter end of his days he had several afflictions he had but two Sons Piero and Giovanni of which Giovanni the most hopeful dyed and Piero who survived was infirm and by the weakness of his body unfit either for publick or private business so that after the death of his Son causing himself to be carried about his house he sighed and said this house is too big for so small a Family It troubled him also that he had not in his judgment enlarged the dominion of the Florentine state nor added to it empire any considerable acquest and it s troubled him the more for that he found himself cheated by Francesco who when he was but Count had promis'd him as soon as he had made himself Master of Milan to employ his Arms against Lucca in the behalf of the Florentines but his mind chang'd with his fortune and having got to be the Duke of Milan had a desire to enjoy in peace what he had obtained by War so that after his elevation he never medled in foreign concerns nor made any more Wars than were necessary for his own defence which was a great disturbance to Cosimo who now discerned he had been at great pains and expence to advance a Man who was both false and ingrateful He perceived likewise that in respect of his age and the infirmities of his body he was not able to apply himself to publick or private business as he was wont and he saw both the one and the other decline the City going to wrack by the dissentions of the Citizens and his fortune by his Ministers and Sons These considerations gave him no little disquiet towards his end yet he died full of Glory and renown all the Cities and Princes of Christendom sent their compliments of condolency to his Son Piero the whole City attended his Corps with great solemnity to the Grave and by publick decree it was inscrib'd upon his Tomb Padre della Patria If in my description and character of Cosimo I have rather followed the example of those who have written the lives of Princes than of an Historian it is not to be admir'd He was a person extraordinary in our City and I thought my self obliged to give him a more than ordinary commendation during the time that Italy and Florence were in the condition aforesaid Lewis King of France was infested with a furious War which his Barons at the instigation of Francis Duke of Britan and Charles Duke of Burgundy had rais'd This War lay so heavy upon him he could not assist Giovanni in his designs upon Genoa and Naples but believing he had need enough of all the supplies he could get he call'd back his forces and Savona being at that time in the hands of the French he ordered it to be delivered to the Count and left him if he pleas'd to pursue the enterprize against Genoa the Count was easily persuaded to a thing so much to his advantage so that by the reputation of his amity with the French King and the assistance given him by the Adorni he possess'd himself of Genoa and in gratitude to the French King sent him a supply of 1500 Horse into France under the Command of his eldest Son Galeazzo by this means Ferrando of Aragon and Francesco Sforza remain'd at quiet the one Duke of Lombardy and Lord of Genoa the other King of the whole Kingdom of Naples and having contracted alliances together and married their Children the one to the other they began to consider how they might secure their states to themselves whilst they lived and to their heirs when they were dead In order to this it was thought necessary the King should make sure of such of his Barons as had sided against him in his Wars with Giovanni d' Angio and the Duke should endeavour to extirpate all that had been favourers of the Bracci who were mortal Enemies to the said Duke and at that time in great reputation under the conduct of Giacopo Piccinino For Giacopo being the greatest Captain in Italy and having no Soveraignty of his own it concerned all who had any to have an eye over him and more especially the Duke who thought he could not enjoy his Dominion safely himself nor leave it to his Sons whilst Giacopo was living Hereupon the King with all industry endeavoured an accord with his Barons used all possible art to reconcile himself to them and he succeeded with much difficulty for they found that whilst they were in Wars with the King they must certainly be ruined but by accommodation of their differences and trusting themselves to him there was only a hazard and because Men do always avoid those evils with more readiness which are most certain Princes do easily deceive such as are not able to contend The Barons seeing nothing before them but destruction if they continued the
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
1700000 men Their Lodgings are appointed by the Harbingers according to every mans office and usually the richest men quarter the greatest Courtiers and that neither the Lodger nor Landlord may have reason to complain the Court has appointed a rate or rule to be observed generally for all people and that is a sous or penny a day for their Chamber in which there is to be bed and chairs and stools and all things that are necessary There is an allowance likewise of two pence a day to every man for linen as towels and napkins and for vinegar and verjuice their linen is to be changed at least twice every week but there being great plenty in that Country they change oftner as Lodgers desire it besides which they are obliged to keep their beds made and their chambers swept and clean There is allowance likewise of two pence a day for the standing of every man's horse they are not bound to provide any thing for them only to keep their stalls clean and carry out the dung Some there are who pay less as their Landlords are good natured or they can make any shift but this is the ordinary rule of the Court. The English Title to the Crown of France upon my best inquiry I find to be thus Charles the sixth of France married his lawful Daughter Katharine to Henry the fifth Son and Heir to Henry the fourth King of England In the articles of Marriage no notice being taken of Charles the seventh who was afterwards King of France besides the Dower that was given with Katharine Charles the sixth Father to the said Katharine instituted Henry the fifth of England his Son in Law and to be married to the said Katharine Heir to that Kingdom of France and in case the said Henry should die before the said Charles and the said Henry leave Sons that were legitimate behind him that then the Sons of the said King Henry should succeed to the said Kingdom of France upon the death of the said Charles the sixth which was contrary to Law because Charles the seventh was prejudiced thereby and was afterwards of no validity or effect against which the English pretend that Charles the seventh was illegitimate The Arch-Bishopricks in England are two The Bishopwricks two and twenty and The Parishes 52000. THE STATE OF GERMANY IN An Abridgment written by Nicolo Machiavelli Secretary of FLORENCE OF the power of Germany no body can doubt because it a bounds so exceedingly in Men and Money and Arms. As to its wealth there is not a Free Town in the whole Country but has a publick stock aforehand of its own and some say Argentina Strasburg alone has a Million of Florens constantly in bank The reason of their opulence is because they have nothing to exhaust them but their Fortifications and furnishing their Magazines for reparations and recruits cost them but little In the latter they have a very good way for they have always in their publick Stores Meat and Drink and Firing for a Twelve-month Besides to entertain the industry of their people they have wherewithal to set the poor on work in case of any Siege a compleat year together so as they may subsist upon their own labour without being burthensom to the Town Their Souldiers are but little expence to them for they are always well arm'd and well exercised and on their Festival days instead of the Common recreations one takes his Musket another his Pike one one sort of Arms another another and practising among themselves they grow very ready and dexterous and after they are arrived at some degree of perfection they have certain Honours and Salaries conferred upon them which is the greatest part of their charge So that in every free Town the publick Treasury is rich The reason likewise why the private persons are rich is this because they live with great parsimony and indeed little better than if they were poor for they are at no expence in their Clothes their Buildings nor the furnishing of their Houses If they have bread and flesh and any thing to keep them from the cold they are well enough and he that wants them is contented and makes some shift or other without them Two Florens will serve them in Clothes ten years and according to his degree every man lives at this rate they do not trouble themselves for every thing they want but only for those things that are absolutely necessary and by that means their necessities are much fewer than ours The result of which Custom is this their Mony goes not out of their County they contenting themselves with their own Native productions whil'st in the mean time every man is permitted to bring in what Treasure he pleases into Germany to purchase their Commodities and Manufactures which in a manner supplies all Italy and their gain is so much the more by how much a small part of the profit of their labours recruits them with Materials for new Thus do they live at liberty and enjoy their own humors for which reason they will not be got to the Wars but upon extraordinary pay and that will not do it neither unless they be commanded by their own Magistrates Wherefore an Emperor has need of more Mony than another Prince because if men be in a good condition already they are not easily allured to the Wars As things stand now the free States must unite with the Princes before any great exploit can be undertaken by the Emperor or else they must enterprize it themselves which they would be able to do But neither the one nor the other desires the greatness of the Emperor for if ever he should get those Free States into his hands he should be strong enough to overpower the Princes and reduce them to such a degree of subjection that he would manage them as he pleased himself as the Kings of France have done formerly in that Country and particularly King Lewis who by force of Arms and the cutting off some few Persons brought them to their present obedience The same thing would happen to the States if the Princes should be cajoled they would lose their freedoms be wholly at the disposition of the Emperor and be forced to be satisfied with what he would vouchsafe to afford them The distance and division betwixt the free States and the Princes is supposed to proceed from the different humors in that Country which in general are two The Swissers are become Enemies to all Germany and the Princes to the Emperor It may seem strange perhaps that the Swissers and free States should be at variance and enmity seeing the preservation of their liberty and securing themselves against the Princes is the common interest of both But their discord is from this that the Swissers are not only Enemies to the Princes but to all Gentlemen whatever and in their Country they have neither the one nor the other but live without distinction of persons unless in their Magistrates in
the Adriatick Sea which were not inhabited they escap'd after them themselves The Padouans seeing the fire so near them concluding when Aquilegia was taken his next visit would be to them sent away their Goods Wives Children and unserviceable people to a place in the same Sea call'd Rivo Alto leaving the young men and such as were able to bear Arms for the defence of the Town The Inhabitants of Montfelice and the Hills about it fearing the same destiny remov'd to the same Islands Aquilegia being taken and Padoua Montfelice Vicenza and Verona overcome and sack'd by Aâ—tila's Army those which remain'd of the Padouans and the most considerable of the rest setled their Habitations in certain Fenns and Marshes about the aforesaid Rivo Alto and all the people about that Province which was anciently call'd Venetia being driven out of their Countrey by the same Calamities joyn'd themselves with them changing by necessity their pleasant and plentiful Habitations for rude and barren places void of all Commodity and Convenience But their number being great and their Quarter but small in a short time they made it not only habitable but delightful framing such Laws and Orders to themselves as secur'd them against miseries of their Neighbours and in a short time made them considerable both for reputation and force So that besidâ—â— their first inhabitants many people resorting to them from the Cities of Lombardy upon occasion of the Cruelty of Clefi King of the Lombards they multiply'd so fast that when Pepin King of France at the solicitation of the Pope undertooke to drive the Lombards out of Italy in the Treaties betwixt him and the Emperour of Greece it was agreed that the Duke of Benevento and the Venetians should be subject neither to the one nor the other but injoy their Liberty to themselves Moreover Necessity having determin'd their Habitations among the Waters having no Land to supply them it forc'd them to look about which way they might live and applying to Navigation they began to trade about the World and not only furnish'd themselves with necessary Provisions but by degrees brought thither such variety of Merchandize that other people which had need of them came to them to be supply'd At first having no thoughts of Dominion they were wholly intent upon what might facilitate their Trade and in order thereunto they acquir'd several Ports both in Greece and Syria and in their passage into Asia the French making use of their Ships they gave them by way of Recompence the Island of Candia While they lived at this rate their Name was grown formidable at Sea and so venerable at Land that in most Controversies betwixt their Neighbours they were the only Arbitrators as it happen'd in the difference betwixt the Confederates upon the division of the Towns where the cause being referred to them they awarded Bergamo and Brescia to the Visconti But having afterwards in process of time conquer'd Padoua Vicenza Trivegi and after them Verona Bergamo and Brescia besides several Towns in Romagna and else where their power began to be so considerable that not only the Princes of Italy but the greatest and most remote Kings were afraid to provoke them Whereupon entring into a Conspiracy against them the Venetians lost all in one day that in so many Years and with so vast Expence they had been gaining and though in our times they may have recover'd it in part yet not having regain'd their Reputation and Power they live at the mercy of other people as indeed all the Princes of Italy do Benedict XII being Pope looking upon Italy as lost and fearing that Lodovic the Emperour should make himself Master of it he resolv'd to enter into strict Amity with all those who held any Lands that belong'd formerly to the Empire presuming their fear to be dispossess'd would make them faithful in the defence of Italy and zealous to keep him out accordingly he publish'd a Decree to confirm all the usurp'd Titles in Lombardy and to continue their Possession But that Pope died before his Promise could be made good and Clement VI. succeeded him The Emperour observing with what libâ—rality the Pope had dispos'd of the Lands belonging to the Empire that he might not be behind him in so generous a point he gave all Lands that had been usurp'd from the Church to such persons as had usurp'd them to hold them of the Empire as the other of the Pope By which Donation Galeotto Maletesti and his Brothers became Lords of Rimini Pesaro and Fano Antonio da Montefeltro of la Marca and Urbin Gentil da Varano of Camerino Giovanni Manfredi of Faenza Guido di Polenta of Ravenna Sinebaldo Or delaffi of Furli and Cesena Lodovico Aledosi of Imola besides many others in other places so that of all the Lands which belong'd to the Church there was scarce any left without an interloper by which means till the time of Alexander VI. the Church was very weak but he recover'd its Authority in our days with the destruction of most of their Posterity At the time of this Concession the Emperour was at Taranto where he gave out his Design was for Italy which was the occasion of great Wars in Lombardy in which the Visconti made themselves Lords of Parma About this time Robert King of Naples died and left two Grand Children by his Son Charles who died not long before leaving his eldest Daughter Giovanna Heir to the Crown with injunction to marry Andrâ—a Son to the King of Hungary who was his Nephew But they liv'd not long together before Andrea was poison'd by her and she married again to Lodovic Prince of Taranto her near Kins-man But Lewis King of Hungary Brother to Andrea to revenge his death came into Italy with an Army and drave Giovanna and her Husband out of the Kingdom About these times there happen'd a very memorable passage in Rome One Nicholas di Lorenzo Chancellor in the Capitol having forc'd the Senate out of Rome under the Title of Tribune made himself head of that Common-wealth reducing it into its ancient form with so much Justice and Virtue that not only the neighbouring Provinces but all Italy sent Embassadours to him The ancient Provinces seeing that City so strangely reviv'd began to lift up their Heads and pay it a respect some out of fear and some out of hopes But Nicholas notwithstanding the greatness of his Reputation not able to comport with so great an Authority deserted it himself for being overburthen'd with the weight of it he left it in the very beginning and without any constraint stole privately away to the King of Bohemia who by the Popes Order in affront to Lewis of Bavaria was made Emperour and to gratifie his Patron he secur'd Nicholas and Clapt him in prison Not long after as it had been in imitation of Nicholas one Francesco Baroncegli possest himself of the Tribuneship and turn'd the Senators out of Rome so that the Pope
as the readiest way to suppress him was glad to discharge Nicholas of his imprisonment and sent him to Rome to resume his old Office whereupon Nicholas undertook the Government once more and caus'd Francesco to be executed But the Colonnesi becoming his Enemies by degrees he himself was put to death by them and the Senate restor'd to the Exercise of its former Authority In the mean time of the King of Hungary having depos'd Queen Giovanna return'd to his own Kingdom But the Pope desir'd to have the Queen his Neighbour rather than that King and order'd things so that the Kingdom was restor'd upon Condition her Husband Lewis renouncing the Title of King should content himself with that of Taranto The Year MCCCL. being come his Holiness thought fit that the Jubilee appointed by Pope Boniface VIII to be kept every hundred years should be reduc'd to fifty and having pass'd a Decree to that purpose in gratitude for so great a Benefit the Romans were contented he should send four Cardinals to Rome to reform their City and create what Senators he pleas'd After which the Pope declar'd Lodovic of Taranto King of Naples again and Giovanna highly oblig'd by that favour gave the Church Avignon which was part of her Patrimony By this time Luchïno Visconti being dead Iohn Arch-Bishop of Milan remain'd sole Lord and making several Wars upon Tuscany and his Neighbours became very considerable After his death the Government fell to his two Nephews Bernardo and Galeazzo but Galeazzo dying a while after he left his Son Iohn Galeazzo to share with his Unkle in the State In these dayes Charles King of Bohemia was created Emperour and Innocent VI. Pope who having sent Cardinal Giles a Spaniard into Italy by his Virtue and the excellence of his Conduct he recover'd the reputation of the Church not only in Rome and Romagna but all Italy over He recover'd Bologna that had been usurp'd by the Arch-Bishop of Milan He constrain'd the Romans to admit a forreign Senator every year of the Popes nomination He made an honourable Agreement with the Visconti He fought and took Prisoner Iohn Aguto an English-man who with four thousand English was entertain'd in Tuscany upon the Ghibilin accompt After these Successes Urban V. being Pope he resolv'd to visit both Italy and Rome where Charles the Emperour came to meet him and having continued together several Months Charles return'd into his Kingdom and the Pope to Avignon Urban died and Gregory XII suceeded and because Cardinal Egidio was dead Italy relaps'd into its former distractions occasion'd by the Caballing of the people against the Visconti Whereupon the Pope at first sent a Legat into Italy with six thousand Britans after whom he follow'd in Person and re-establish'd his Residence at Rome in the year MCCCLXXVI after it had been kept in France LXXI years After the death of this Pope Urban VI. was created Not long after at Fondi ten Cardinals quarrelling with his Election and pretending it was not fair created Clement VII The Genoveses in the mean time who for several years had lived quietly under the Government of the Visconti rebell'd Betwixt them and the Venetian there happen'd great Wars about the Island of Tenedos in which War by Degrees all Italy became concern'd and there it was that great Guns were first us'd they being a German Invention Though for a while the Genoveses were predominant and held Venice blockt up for several Months together yet in the conclusion the Venetian had the better and made an advantagious Peace by the assistance of the Pope In the year 1381 as we have said before there was a Schism in the Church and Giovanna the Queen favour'd the Anti-Pope Whereupon Pope Urban practis'd against her and sent Carlo Durazzo who was of the Royal House of Naples with an Army into her Kingdom who possest himself of her Countrey and drove her away into France The King of France undertaking her quarrel sent Lodovic d' Angio to repossess the Queen and force Urban out of Rome and set up the Anti-Pope But Lodovic dying in the middle of the Enterprize his Army broke up and return'd into France Urban thereupon goes over to Naples and claps nine Cardinals in Prison for having sided with France and the Anti-Pope After that he took it ill of the King that he refus'd to make one of his Nephews Prince of Capua but concealing his disgust he desir'd Nocera of him for his Habitation which as soon as he was possess'd of he fortified and began to cast about which way to deprive him of his Kingdom The King taking the Alarm advanc'd against Nocera and besieg'd it but the Pope escap'd to Genoua where he put the Cardinals which were his Prisoners to death From thence he went to Rome and created 28 new Cardinals In the mean time Charles King of Naples went into Hungary was proclaim'd King there and not long after kill'd He left the Kingdom of Naples to his Wife and two Children he had by her one call'd Ladislao and the other Giovanna Iohn Galeazzo Visconti in the mean time had kill'd his Unkle Bernardo and possess'd himself of Milan and not content to have made himself Duke of Milan he attempted upon Tuscany but when he was in a fair way to have conquer'd it and to have made himself King of all Italy he died Urban VI. died also and was succeeded by Boniface IX Clâ—ment VII the Anti-Pope died likewise at Avignon and Benedict XIII was created in his room Italy all this while was full of Soldiers of Fortune English Dutch and Britans some of them Commanded by Princes which upon several occasions had been invited thither and some of them which had been sent by the Popes when their residence was at Avignon With this medly of Nations the Princes of Italy maintain'd their Wars many times till at length Lodovico da Conio Romagnuolo having train'd up a Party of Italians call'd the Soldiers of Saint George by his Valour and Discipline lessen'd the Reputation of the Forreigners and made them afterwards more useful and considerable in the Italian Wars The Pope upon certain differences which arose betwixt him and the Romans remov'd to Scesi where he remain'd till the Jubilee in the year 1400. at which time to invite him back again for the benâ—fit of their City the Romans condescended that he should have the annual nomination of a forreign Senator and be permitted to fortifie the Castle of St. Angelo upon which Conditions being return'd to inrich the Church he ordain'd That in every Vacancy each Benefice should pay an Annat into the Chamber Ecclesiastical After the death of Iohn Galeazzo Duke of Milan though he left two Sons Giovan-Mari-Angelo and Philip the State was divided into many Factions In the troubles which followed Giovan-Mari-Angelo was slain and Philip for some time kept Prisoner in the Castle of Pavia but by the Valour and Allegiance of the Governour
refuge the Florentines had in their necessities was to the State of Milan determined to give the Dutchess so much imployment of her own that she should not be at leasure to send them any relief and by means of Prospero Adorno the Signore Roberto and the Sforzi which were banished he wrought so that Genoa rebelled nevertheless the little Castle remained firm to the young Duke and the Dutchess sent forces to them to recover the Town but they were overthrown whereupon considering with her self the danger which might accrew both to her Son and her self if the War should be continued all Tuscany being imbroiled and the Florentines in distress she resolved seeing she could not retain Genoa as a Subject that she would have it as a Friend and agreed with Battistino Fregosi a great Enemy to Prospero Adorno to deliver him the Castle and make him Prince of Genoa upon condition he would drive out Prospero and give the Sforzi no assistance nor protection After all was concluded betwixt them the Castle was surrendered and by the help of that and his party Battistino reducing Genoa and according to their custom made himself Dogue the Sforzi and Signore Roberto being forced out of the Town they passed with their followers into Lunigiana The Pope and the King seeing the troubles in Lombardy composed took occasion to infest Tuscany on that side towards Pisa with those Persons which were driven out of Genoa supposing by dividing and diverting their forces to weaken the Florentines whereupon the Summer approaching they prevailed with the Signore Roberto to march with his Squadron from Lunigiana into the Country of Pisa Roberto put the whole Country into confusion took several Castles from the Pisans and plundered them and made his excursions to the very walls of Pisa it self About this time Embassadors arrived at Florence from the Emperour the King of France and the King of Hungary who from their several Princes being sent to the Pope persuaded the Florentines to send Embassadors also and promised their utmost endeavour with him to conclude all their differences with an honorable peace The Florentines consented as well to excuse themselves to the World as that they were really desirous of it Having sent therefore their Embassadors they returned as they went without any accommodation and the Florentines finding themselves abused or abandoned by the Italians resolved to try if they could gain themselves any reputation by an alliance with France to which purpose they sent as their Embassador Donato Acciaivoli a person well skill'd both in the Greek and Latine tongues whose Ancestors had always born great office in that State but being arrived at Milan in his journey he died and Florence in honor to his memory and remuneration to his Children buried him magnificently at the publick charge gave his Sons considerable exemptions and his Daughters such portions as would marry them like themselves and sent Giud ' Antonio Vespucci a Man well versed in the imperial and Pontifical Laws to the King of France in his place The inroad Signore Roberto had made into the Country of Pisa as all sudden and unexpected things do gave the Florentines no little distraction For the War lying heavy upon them in the Country of Siena they could not see how they should be able to defend themselves on the other side however they sent officers and all other provisions to reinforce the City of Pisa and that they might keep the Lucchesi from assisting the Enemy with mony or any thing else they sent Gino Capponi as their Embassador to them but he was received so ill out of an ancient Enmity to the People of Florence upon former injuries received and a constant apprehension to them that he was many times in danger of being killed by the multitude So that his journey produced new quarrels rather than new quiet and thereupon the Florentines called back the Marquess of Ferrara entertained the Marquess of Mantoua into their pay and with great importunity desired of the Venetians Count Carlo the Son of Braccio and Deifebo the Son of Count Giacopo who after several scruples and demurs were sent to them for having made peace with the Turk aud no pretence left to excuse themselves they were ashamed to braek faith with the League Carlo therefore and Deifebo being come with a considerable number of Horse and joyned to what forces they could conveniently draw out of the Marquess of Ferrara's Army which attended the Duke of Calabria they marched towards Pisa in quest of Signore Roberto who was posted with his ARmy near the river Serchio and thought at first he made a show of expecting our Army yet upon second thoughts he removed and retired into the Country of Lunigiana to the same quarters where he lay before his expedition to Pisa. Upon his departure Count Carlo repossess'd himself of all the Enemy had taken in that Country and the Florentines being clear on that side drew all their forces into one body betwixt Colle and Santo Giminiano but upon Carlo's conjunction there being several of the Sforzeschi and the Bracceschi in the Army the old feud began to revive and it was believed had they stayed longer together they had fallen together by the ears to prevent these inconveniences it was resolved to divide the Army that Count Carlo should march with his forces into the Country of Perugia and the rest fortifie and intrench themselves at Poggibonzi to obstruct the Enemy from entring into the Country of Florence By this division they supposed likewise the Enemy would be forced to divide for they thought that either Count Carlo would take Perugia where he had a great party as they believed or that the Pope would be constrained to send a good body of Men to defend it and to drive his Holiness into greater necessity they ordered Nicolo Vitelli who had left Castello where Lorenzo his Enemy was predominant with what force he could make to approach the Town to drive out his adversary if he could and keep it against the Pope At first fortune seemed to encline to the Florentines Count Carlo advanced strangely in the Country of Perugia Nicolo Vitelli though he could not get into the Town of Castello yet he was Master of the field and plundered round about it without any contradiction and those forces which were encamped at Poggibonzi made their excursions to the very walls of Sienna But at last all their hopes came to nothing for first Count Carlo died in the very height of their expectations whose death had nevertheless much bettered the condition of the Florentines had they known how to have improved the victory which it produced for no sooner was the death of Count Carlo known but the Popes Army being all together in Perugia conceiving great hopes of overpowering the Florentines took the field and encamped upon the Lake within three miles of the Enemy on the other side Giacopo Guicciardini at that time Commissary of the Army by the advice
to atcheive they are applauded at least not upbraided thereby but when they are unable to compass it and yet will be doing then they are condemned and indeed not unworthily If France then with its own forces alone had been able to have enterpriz'd upon Naples it ought to have been done but if her own private strength was too weak it ought not to have been divided and if the division of Lombardy to which she consented with the Venetian was excusable it was because done to get footing in Italy But this partition of Naples with the King of Spain is extreamly to be condemned because not press'd or quicken'd by such necessity as the former Lewis therefore committed five faults in this Expedition He ruin'd the inferior Lords He augmented the Dominion of a Neighbour Prince He call'd in a Forreigner as puissant as himself He neglected to continue there in person and planted no Colonies All which errors might have been no inconvenience whil'st he had lived had he not been guilty of a sixt and that was depressing the power of the Venetian If indeed he had not sided with the Church nor brought the Spaniards into Italy it had been but reasonable for him to have taken down the pride of the Venetian but persuing his first resolutions he ought not to have suffer'd them to be ruin'd because whil'st the Venetian strength was intire they would have kept off other people from attempting upon Lombardy to which the Venetians would never have consented unless upon condition it might have been deliver'd to them and the others would not in probability have forced it from France to have given it to them and to have contended with them both no body would have had the courage If it be urg'd that King Lewis gave up Romagna to the Pope and the Kingdom of Naples to the King of Spain to evade a War I answer as before That a present mischief is not to be suffer'd to prevent a War for the War is not averted but protracted and will follow with greater disadvantage If the Kings faith and engagements to the Pope to undertake this enterprize for him be objected and that he did it to recompence the dissolution of his Marriage and the Cap which at his intercession his Holiness had confer'd upon the Legate of Amboise I refer them for an answer to what I shall say hereafter about the faith of a Prince how far it obliges So then King Lewis lost Lombardy because he did not observe one of those rules which others have followed with success in the Conquest of Provinces and in their desire to keep them Nor is it an extraordinary thing but what happens every day and not without reason To this purpose I remember I was once in discourse with the Cardinal d' Amboise at Nantes at the time when Valentino for so Caesar Borgia Pope Alezander's Son was commonly call'd possess'd himself of Romagna In the heat of our Conference the Cardinal telling me that the Italians were ignorant of the art of War I replyed that the French had as little skill in matters of State for if they had had the least policy in the world they would never have suffer'd the Church to have come to that height and Elevation And it has been found since by experience that the Grandeur of the Church and the Spaniard in Italy is derived from France and that they in requital have been the ruine and expulsion of the French From hence a general rule may be deduc'd and such a one as seldom or never is subject to Exception Viz. That whoever is the occasion of anothers advancement is the cause of his own diminution because that advancement is founded either upon the conduct or power of the Donor either of which become suspicious at length to the person prefer'd CHAP. IV. Why the Kingdom of Darius usurped by Alexander did not rebel against his Successors after Alexander was dead THE difficulties encountred in the keeping of a new Conquest being consider'd it may well be admired how it came to pass that Alexander the Great having in a few years made himself Master of Asia and died as soon as he had done That state could be kept from Rebellion Yet his Successors enjoy'd it a long time peaceably without any troubles or concussions but what sprung from their own avarice and ambition I answer That all Monarchies of which we have any record were govern'd after two several manners Either by a Prince and his Servants whom he vouchsafes out of his meer grace to constitute his Ministers and admits of their Assistance in the Government of his Kingdom or else by a Prince and his Barons who were persons advanc'd to that quality not by favour or concession of the Prince but by the ancientness and Nobility of their Extraction These Barons have their proper jurisdictions and subjects who own their Authority and pay them a natural respect Those States which are govern'd by the Prince and his Servants have their Prince more Arbitrary and absolute because his Supremacy is acknowledged by every body and if another be obeyed it is only as his Minister and Substitute without any affection to the Man Examples of these different Governments we may find in our time in the persons of the Grand Signore and the King of France The whole Turkish Monarchy is governed by a single person the rest are but his Servants and Slaves for distinguishing his whole Monarchy into Provinces and Governments which they call Sangiacchi he sends when and what Officers he thinks fit and changes them as he pleases But the King of France is established in the middle as it were of several great Lords whose Soveraignty having been owned and families beloved a long time by their Subjects they keep their preheminence nor is it in the King's power to deprive them without inevitable danger to himself He therefore who considers the one with the other will find the Turkish Empire harder to be subdued but when once conquered more easie to be kept The reason of the difficulty is because the Usurper cannot be call'd in by the Grandees of the Empire nor hope any assistance from the great Officers to facilitate his Enterprize which proceeds from the reasons abovesaid for being all slaves and under obligation they are not easily corrupted and if they could little good was to be expected from them being unable for the aforesaid reasons to bring them any party So that whoever invades the Turk must expect to â—ind him entire and united and is to depend more upon his own proper force than any disorders among them but having once conquered them and beaten their Army beyond the possibility of a recruit the danger is at an end for there is no body remaining to be afraid of but the Family of the Emperor which being once extinguished no body else has any interest with the people and they are as little to be apprehended after the Victory as they were to be
four days time begin to be cool and consider things soberly they will find there is no remedy and joyn more cordially with the Prince looking upon him as under an obligation to them for having sacrificed their Houses and Estates in his defence And the nature of Man is such to take as much pleasure in having obliged another as in being obliged himself Wherefore all things fairly considered it is no such hard matter for a Prince not only to gain but to retain the affection of his Subjects and make them patient of a long Siege if he be wise and provident and takes care they want nothing either for their livelyhood or defence CHAP. XI Of Ecclesiastical Principalities THere remains nothing of this Nature to be discoursed but of Ecclesiastical Principalities about which the greatest difficulty is to get into possession because they are gained either by Fortune or Virtue but kept without either being supported by ancient Statutes universally received in the Christian Church which are of such power and authority they do keep their Prince in his dignity let his conversation or conduct be what it will These are the only persons who have lands do not defend them Subjects do not govern them and yet their lands are not taken from them though they never defend them nor their Subjects dissatisfied though they never regard them so that these Principalities are the happiest and most secure in the world but being managed by a supernatural power above the wisdom and contrivance of man I shall speak no more of them for being set up and continued by God himself it would be great presumption in any man who should undertake to dispute them Nevertheless if it should be questioned how it came to pass that in Temporal things the Church is arrived at that height seeing that before Alexander's time the Italian Ptinces not only such as were Soveraigns but every Baron and Lord how inconsiderable soever in Temporal affairs esteemed of them but little yet since it has been able not only to startle and confront the King of France but to drive him out of Italy and to ruine the Venetians the reason of which though already well known I think it not superfluous to revive in some measure Before Charles King of France passed himself into Italy that Province was under the Empire of the Pope the Venetians the King of Naples Duke of Milan and the Florentines It was the interest of these Potentates to have a care some of them that no foreign Prince should come with an Army into Italy and some that none among themselves should usurp upon the other Those of whom the rest were concern'd to be most jealous were the Pope and the Venetian to restrain the Venetians all the rest were us'd to confederate as in the defence of Ferrara To keep under the Pope the Roman Barons contributed much who being divided into two factions the Ursini and Colonnessi in perpetual contention with their Arms constantly in their hands under the very nose of the Pope they kept the Pontifical power very low and infirm and although now and then there happened a couragious Pope as Sextus yet neither his courage wisdom nor fortune was able to disintangle him from those incommodities and the shortness of their reign was the reason thereof for ten years time which was as much as any of them reign'd was scarce sufficient for the suppression of either of the parties and when the Colonnesi as a man may say were almost extinct a new Enemy sprang up against the Ursini which revived the Colonnesi and reestablished them again This emulation and animosity at home was the cause the Pope was no more formidable in Italy after this Alexander VI. was advanc'd to the Papacy who more than all that had ever been before him demonstrated what a Pope with mony and power was able to do having taken advantage of the French invasion by the Ministry and conduct of Duke Valentine he performed all that I have mentioned else where among the Actions of the said Duke And though his design was not so much to advantage the Church as to aggrandize the Duke yet what he did for the one turned afterwards to the benefit of the other for the Pope being dead and Valentine extinct what both of them had got devolv'd upon the Church after him Iulius succeeded and found the Church in a flourishing condition Romagna was wholly in its possession the Barons of Rome exterminated and gone and their factions suppressed by Pope Alexander and besides a way opened for raising and hoarding of mony never practised before which way Iulius improving rather than otherwise he began to entertain thoughts not only of conquering Bologna but mastering the Venetians and forcing the French out of Italy All which great enterprizes succeeding it added much to his honor that he impropriated nothing but gave all to the Church He maintained also the Colonnesi and Ursini in the same condition as he found them and though in case of sedition there were those ready on both sides to have headed them yet there were two considerations which kept them at Peace One was the greatness of the Church which kept them in awe the other was their want of Cardinals which indeed was the Original of their discontents and will never cease till some of them be advanced to that dignity for by them the Parties in Rome and without are maintained aud the Barons oblig'd to defend them so that the ambition of the prelates is the cause of all the dissention and tumults among the Barons His present Holiness Pope Leo had the happiness to be elected at a time when it was most powerful and it is hop'd if they made the Church great by their Arms he by the integrity of his conversation and a thousand other virtues will enlarge it much more and make it more venerable and august CHAP. XII How many forms there are of Military Discipline and of those Souldiers which are called Mercenary HAving spoken particularly of the several sorts of Principalities as I proposed in the beginning considered in part the reasons of their constitution and their evil and the ways which many have taken to acquire and preserve them it remains that I proceed now in a general way upon such things as may conduce to the offence or defence of either of them We have declared before that it is not only expedient but necessary for a Prince to take care his foundations be good otherwise his fabrick will be sure to fail The principal foundations of all States new old or mixt are good Laws and good Arms and because there cannot be good Laws where there are not good arms and where the Arms are good there must be good Laws I shall pass by the Laws and discourse of the Arms. I say the Arms then with which a Prince defends his State are his own Mercenary Auxiliary or mixt The Mercenary and Auxiliary are unprofitable and dangerous and
and fia il combatter Corto Che l' antico valore Ne ' gl' Italici curr ' non e ancor morto Virtue shall arm 'gainst rage and in short sight Prove th' Roman Valour 's not extinguish'd quite The Original of the words Guelf and Ghibilin so much mentioned in History THese two Factions so famous in History were eminent in Italy two ages before Castruccio was born Machiavel in his Treatise of the Wars of that Country affirms that Pistoia was the first place where those names of distinction were used but the account wherewith the publick Libraries supply me runs thus These two words Guelf and Ghibilin deduce their original from a schism which molested the Church in the year 1130. by the competition of two Popes Innocent 11. and Anaclet the greatest part of Christendom acknowledged Innocent who was particularly supported by the Emperors of the West Anaclet the anti-Pope had persuaded into his interests Roger Comte de Naples and Sicily a martial Prince and descended from the Normans who had conquered that Country The pretence of this double Election having kept a War on foot eight years together which was still favourable to Roger the Emperor Conrad the third march'd himself at the head of an Army of Germans into Italy leaving his Grand-son Prince Henry to come after Roger to oppose him with men of his own Nation allured to the defence of his Countries Guelf Duke of Bavaria During the course of this War which began in the year 1139. it hapned sometimes that the Emperors Army was commanded by the said Prince Herny who was brought up in a Village in Germany called Ghibilin whose situation being very pleasant made the very name of it â—ear to him One day the Armies being drawn up and ready to engage the Bavarians to encourage their Comrades cryed out in their language a Guelf a Guelf and the Emperors Troops being at the same time as well disposed to their General to comply with the kindness he had for that place cryed out on the other side a Ghibilin a Ghibilin These words seemed barbarous to the Italians that were with Roger who came to Guelf to know what they meant He told them the Pope's Party were intended by the word Guelf and the Emperors by the word Ghibilin from that time those names grew so common in both Armies that by them they answered their Who goes there and they were given to the Italians according to their several sides 'T is true at first they were used to discriminate only Anaclet's Party from the Emperors but afterwards Roger having vanquished and taken prisoner Pope Innocent as the price of his liberty he oblig'd him to erect the Countries of Naples and Sicily into Kingdoms by which treaty Roger being taken off from the interest of the anti-Pope and engaging entirely with the Church he affix'd the name of Guelf to the Pope's Party and confirm'd the name Ghibilin to the Faction of the Emperor The Italians would fain have the credit of the Etymology themselves and by a certain gingling of words and that mightily strain'd would have Guelf deriv'd from Guardatori di fe because forsooth 't is they who defend the Faith of the Church and that by corruption the word Ghibilin was form'd from Guida belli that is Guidatori di Bataglia a great Title and sutable to the Majesty of the Empire Be it which way it will these two Factions were in the height of their emulation two hundred years after that is to say about the year 1320. which was very near the time that Castruccio was in his prosperity And in Europe the face of affairs stood thus The Popes driven from Rome by the violence of the Emperors of the West had transferred the Holy Chair to Avignon in France In the year 1320. it was possessed by Iohn XXII a Prince of himself firm and entire but one who by the precipitate counsels of other people had excommunicated the Emperor Lewis of the house of Bavaria and been too busie with his fulminations against five more Princes of Italy who being treated by him like Tyrants confederated against him their names were Castruccio Sovereign of Lucca Scaliger Lord of Verona the Marquess d' Esti Lord of Ferrara and Visconti and Gonzague the first Sovereign of Milan and the other of Mantoua which created troubles to Italy The Empire of the East was at that time torn and distracted by the ambition of the Paliologi and others whilst in the mean time the Sultan Orchan son of Ottoman swept away Lycaonia Phrygia and all the Coast of the Hellespont from the Greeks The Empire of the West was then in dispute betwixt Frederick of Austria and Lewis of Bavaria whom Machiavel by mistake or inadvertency has called Frederick Lewis after long and bloody Wars overcome his Competitor and made several Voyages into Italy to invigorate and reinforce Castruccio and the Ghibilins France was governed by Philip le Long who at the solicitation of Pope Iohn passed an Army into Italy to the relief of the Guelfs which Army was commanded by Philip de Valois afterwards King but his Expedition did not answer expectation for either the cunning or bribes of the Ghibilins had dispelled the storm which our preparations threatned upon Lombardy or our Forces were recalled upon some secret apprehension of a fourth War with the English or by the vast projects of a fifth Expedition to the Holy Land Spain was divided into five Kingdoms each of which had its peculiar King four of them were Christians and one a Mahumetan Navar had the same King with France Philip the Long found a way to extend the Salick Law into that Country and defeat his Niece Iane of France Daughter of Lewis Hutin of both Kingdoms at once Alphonso XI as Mariana calls him the XII as Garibay had at that time the Scepter of Castile but his minority transferr'd the Conduct of Affairs into the hands of the two Infanti Don Pedro and Don Iohn insomuch as by the jealousie and division betwixt the two Regents that Kingdom was exposed to such disorders as are inseparable from the minority of a Prince At length the two Infanti were slain in the year 1320. in a Fight which their rashness caused them to lose to the Mores under the walls of Granada Arragon was in obedience to Don Iacques the second of that name He was Brother to Fredrick who reigned in Sicily to the prejudice of Robert a Prince of the House of Anjou This Robert was King of Naples sided with the Guelfs and leagued himself sundry times with the Florentines against Castruccio Iames King of Aragon designing to establish himself in Italy and judging that the Conquests which he mediated upon the Isles of Corsica and Sardinia depended much upon the Concord of his Subjects at home He caused a General Assembly of his Estates to be held in the year 1320. in which was concluded the Union of the Kingdoms of Aragon and Valentia with the Principality
several great Barons who were able not only to expostulate but to contend with the King as the Dukes of Guienn and Burbon did formerly the said Barons are now most obsequious and dutiful A third reason is because formerly all the neighbouring Princes were ready upon every occasion to invade the Kingdom of France the Dukes of Burgundy Britannie Guienne or Flanders being always tempting them thereunto and giving them access passage and reception as it hapned when the English had Wars with France by their Confederacy with the Duke of Britagne they got admission into that Country and gave the King of France his hands full and in like manner the Duke of Burgundy was as troublesom by means of the Duke of Bourbon But now Britagne Guienne the Bourbonois and greatest part of Burgundy being united to that Crown and very loyal and faithful Those neighbouring Princes do not only want their old Confederates to invite and assist them but they have them for their Enemies so that the King of France is more strong and his Adversaries more weak Another reason may be That at this day the richest and most potent of the Barons are of the Blood Royal so that upon defect of those who are before them the Crown may come to them upon which score they are firm to it hoping that some time or other it may fall either to them or their posterity whereas to mutiny or oppose it might prejudice their succession as it hapned to this King Lewis when he was taken in the Battel of Britagne where in favour of the said Duke of Britagne he was personally in Service against the French Upon the death of King Charles the Crown being legally in Lewis it was disputed whether that fault and defection of his should not be a bar to his succession and had it not been that he was very rich by means of his frugality and able to bear the Port of that Dignity at his own expence and the next Heir Monsigneur d' Angolisme an Infant he had lost it but for these reasons and some favour which he had besides Lewis was created King The last reason is because the States of the Barons in France are not divided among the Heirs as in Germany and several parts of Italy but descend still to the Eldest Son who are the right Heirs and the younger Sons are left by some little assistance from their Elder Brothers to shift for themselves whereupon they betake themselves generally to the Wars endeavouring to advance themselves that way and raise themselves fortunes and hence it is the Frenchmen at Arms are better at this day and stand fair for preferment The French Infantry cannot be good for it being long since they had any War they must needs want experience Besides in the Country the Towns are full of Tradesmen and Mechanicks all of them so curb'd and cow'd by the Nobless that they are grown pusillanimous and base and therefore the King of France having found them unfit makes no use of them in his Wars unless it be of his Gascoigns who are something better than the rest and the reason is because bordering upon the Spaniards they are constantly upon duty or communicate something of their Nature But for some years since they have shown themselves better Theives than Soldiers nevertheless in defending and assaulting of Towns they do well enough but in the field they are but indifferent quite contrary to the Germans and Swizzers who are not to be dealt with in the field but in storming or defending a Town they are good for nothing and I suppose it proceeds from hence that they cannot in both cases keep the same order which they observe in the field Wherefore the King of France makes use of Switzers and Lanzknights because his men at Arms dare not rely upon his Gascoignes in time of Service And if his Foot were as good as his Men at Arms no doubt but the King of France would be able to defend himself against all the Princes in Europe The French are naturally more fierce and hot than dexterous or strong and if resisted handsomly in their first charge they slacken and cool and grow as timerous as Women They are likewise impatient of distress or incommodity and grow so careless by degrees that 't is no hard matter finding them in disorder to master and overcome them And of this Experience has been many times had in the Kingdom of Naples and last of all at Farigliano where they were twice as many as the Spaniards and it was expected every hour when they should have swallowed them up Nevertheless because winter came on and the weather grew bad they began to straggle into the Neighbouring Towns where they might be at more ease and thereby leaving their Camp weak and out of order the Spaniards fell upon them and beat them beyond all expectation And it would have been the same with the Venetians who had never lost the Battel of Vaila had they forborn following the French example but for ten days But the fury of Bartolmeo d' Alviano was too hot for them The same hapned again to the Spaniards at Ravenna who might have certainly ruined the French in respect of their ill Government and want of provisions which were intercepted on that side towards Ferrara by the Venatians and towards Bologna by the Spaniards themselves but by the rashness of some and the indiscretion of others the French got the Victory and though as it was it was bloody enough yet it had been much more had the strength of either Army consisted in the same kind of men but the French force lying in his Men at Arms and the Spaniards force in their Foot the slaughter was the less He therefore who would conquer the French must be sure to preserve himself against their first impetus and attack and in so doing he shall be sure to prevail for Caesar's character of them is true At first they are more than Men at last less than Women France in respect of its greatness and the convenience of its Rivers is opulent and rich for their Commodities and labour are worth little or nothing by reason of the scarcity of Money among the people which is so great it is with difficulty that they are able to raise so much as will pay the impositions of their Lords though they are generally but small the reason is because every body gathers to sell as he has occasion and no body can stay to finish his harvest as it should be So that if there should be any body which is seldom seen so rich as to be a bushel of Corn beforehand every body having of their own there would be no body to buy it and the Gentlemen of what they receive of their Tenants except it be for cloths spend little or nothing For Cattle and Poultry and Fish and Venison they have enough of their own so that all the Mony comes into the hands of the Lords and
France is in no apprehension because it is washed by the Sea on that side and accommodated with Ports always full of Ships partly of the Kings and partly of other petty Princes sufficient to defend their Coasts from any sudden impression and against any thing premeditated they will have time enough to prepare for it requires time to make a solemn invasion and the preparation will be discovered by some body besides for further security there are always parties of Men at Arms scowring upon the Coasts Their expence in keeping of their Towns is not so great for the French Subjects are very dutiful and the fortresses are not kept at the charge of the Kingdom and on the borders where Garisons and by consequence expence would be more necessary those flying bodies of Men at Arms save them that charge for against any extraordinary insult there will be time enough to provide for that requires time to be fitted and more to be executed The people of France are very humble and obedient and have their King in mighty veneration They live at very little expence by reason of their great plenty and every body hath something of his own their clothing is course of very cheap stuff and they use no kind of Silks neither the men nor the women for if they should they should be obnoxious to the Gentry who would certainly be even with them The Bishopricks in France according to modern computation are 146 and the Arch-Bishopricks 18. The Parishes are reckoned a million and 700 and the Abbies 740. Of the Priories there is no account Of the ordinary and extraordinary Entries of the Crown I could get no exact account I inquired of several and all told me they were as the King pleased to require Yet some persons told me that that part of his ordinary Revenue which arises out of his Gabels upon wine and bread and flesh and the like amounts to a million and seven hundred thousand Crowns and his extraordinary by Taxes amounts as he pleases but in case they fall short he has another string to his bow and that is by way of loans which are seldom repaid The Letters to that purpose do commonly run thus Sir The King recommends himself to you and having at this time pressing occasion for mony He desires you would furnish him with the sum contained in this Letter which sums are paid in to the next Receiver and there are of them in every Town who receives all the profits and revenue accrewing to the King by Gabels Taxes Loans or otherwise Those Towns which are subject to the Crown have no rules or orders but what His Majesty is pleased to set them for raising of mony either by Taxes or otherwise The authority of the Barons over their Subjects and half their Revenues consists in bread and wine and flesh as abovesaid and so much a year for hearth-mony but it must not exceed six pence or eight pence a hearth to be paid every three months Taxes and Loans they cannot require without the consent of the King which he grants very rarely The Crown receives no other advantage from them than in the revenue for salt and never taxes them but upon extraordinary occasion The King's order in his extraordinary expences both in War and Peace is to command the Treasurers to pay the Souldiers which they do by tickets of assignment The Pensioners and Gentlemen repair to the Generals with their tickets from month to month where they are entred and having received a new policy from three months to three months the Pensioners and Gentlemen go then to the Receivers of the respective Provinces where they live and are paid immediately The Gentlemen belonging to the King are 200 their pay 20 Crowns a month and paid as abovesaid each hundred has a Captain The Pensioners are no set number and their Pensions are as uncertain being more or less as it pleases the King they are in a way of preferment and therefore there is no exact rules for them The office of the Receivers General of France is to receive so much for fire and so much for taxes by consent of the King and to take care that both ordinary and extraordinary expences be paid at the time and discharges given as aforesaid The Treasurers have the keeping of the mony and pay it according to their orders from the Generals The office of the Grand Chancellor is judicial land definitive he can pardon and condemn as he pleases and that even in Capital Causes without the consent of the King In Causes where the Clients are contumaciously litigious He can prefix them a day for the determination of their Suit He can confer Benefices but that must be with the King's consent for those grants are pass'd by the King's Letters under the Broad-Seal wherefore that Seal is kept by the said Chancellor His salary is 10000 Franks per an and 11000 more for his Table which Table is intended for the repast and entertainment of such Gentlemen Lawyers and Counsellors as follow in his train when they think fit either to dine or sup with him The sum which the King of England received annually from the King of France was fifty thousand Franks in consideration of certain disbursements by the present King of England's Father in the Dutchy of Britagne but the time of that payment is expired At present there is in France but one Grand Seneschal when there are more I do not mean Grand Seneschals for there is never but one their authority is over the Militia both in Ordinary and Extraordinary whom for the dignity of their Office they are obliged to obey The Governors of the Provinces are as many as the King pleases and have their Commission for life or years and their Salaries great or little as he thinks good to appoint the other Governors to the very inferior Officers in every little Town have all their Commissions from the Kings for you must know there is no office in that Kingdom but is either given or sold by that King Of the quantity of distributions for the Gentlemen and the Pensioners there is no certain account but as to them the King's warrant is sufficient for they are not liable to the Chamber of Accounts The Office of the Chamber of Accounts is to view and audit the accounts of all such as have any thing to do in the King's Moneys as the Generals the Treasurers and the Receivers The University of Paris is paid out of the Rents of the Foundations of the Colledges but very narrowly The Parliaments are five of Paris of Roan of Tholose Burdeaux and Douphine from either of which there is no appeal The Universities first were but four at Paris Orleans Bourgi and Poictiers to which these at Tours and Angiers have been added since but they are very inconsiderable The standing Army is a great both for number of Men and Artillery as the King pleases and are quartered and disposed according to orders from
reported all over Tuscany that there were arm'd men seen fighting in the air over the Town of Arezzo and that the clashing of their arms in the conflict was heard by the people It is generally known in Florence that before the death of the old Laurence de Medici the Duomo or chief Church in that City was struck with lightning and the people destroyed and before Piero Sodermi who was made Gonfaloniere for his life by the people was banished and degraded the Palace was burn'd by lightning likewise many other instances might be produced which I omit for brevity sake I shall only add one which is mentioned by Livy before the coming of the French to Rome Marcus Ceditius a Plebeian acquainted the Senate that passing one night about twelve a clock thorow the Via-nova he heard a voice bigger than a mans which advised him to let the Senate know the French were upon their march to Rome How these things could be it is to be discoursed by persons well versed in the causes of natural and supernatural events for my part I will not pretend to understand them unless according to the opinion of some Philosophers we may believe that the air being full of intelligences and spirits who foreseeing future events and commiserating the condition of mankind gives them warning by these kind of intimations that they may the more timely provide and defend themselves against their calamities But what-ever is the cause experience assures us that after such denuntiations some extraordinary thing or other does constantly happen CHAP. LVII The multitude united is formidable and strong but separated is weak and inconsiderable THe Romans being overthrown and their Country much wasted upon the coming of the French many of them contrary to an express Order and Edict of the Senate transplanted to Veii and left Rome Whereupon by a new Proclamation the Senate commanded that by a precise day and upon a certain penalty they should return to their old habitations when the news of this Proclamation was first brought to Veii it was despised and laugh'd at by every body but when the day appointed for their return arrived there was not a man but pack'd up his goods and came back as was required and as Livy says in the case Ex ferocibus universis singuli metu suo obedientes Not one of them who were so contumacious together but apart began to fear and that fear made him obedient And certainly nothing can give us a more lively description of the nature of a multitude than this case They are bold and will speak liberally against the decrees of their Prince and afterwards when they see their punishment before their faces every one grows fearful of his neighbour slips his neck out of the coller and returns to his obedience So that it is not much to be considered what the people say either of their Princes good management or bad so they be strong enough to keep them in their good humour when they are well disposed and provide which they are ill that they do them no hurt But this ill disposition of the people I mean all ill dispositions but what arise either from the loss of their liberty or the loss of some excellent Prince still living upon whom they had setled their affections For the evil dispositions proceeding from these causes are transcendently dreadful and strong remedies are to be applyed to restrain them In other cases their anger is nothing especially having no body to head them for as there is nothing so terrible as their fury in one case so there is nothing so vain and inconsiderable in the other because though they have betaken themselves to their Arms they are easily reduced if you can but avoid the first heat of their fury for by degrees they will cool and every man considering it is his duty to return will begin to suspect himself and think of his security either by making his peace or escape Whenever therefore the multitude is in a mutiny their best way is immediately to choose themselves a Head who may correct keep them united and contrive for their defence as the Romans did when leaving Rome upon the death of Virginia for their protection and security They created twenty Tribunes from among themselves and if this course be neglected it happens to them as Livy presaged in the foregoing Sentence That as nothing is more couragious than the multitude united so nothing is more abject when they are separate and divided CHAP. LVIII That the multitude is wiser and more constant than a Prince THat nothing is more vain and inconstant than the multitude Titus Livius and all other Historians do agree You shall many times find them condemning a man to death and lamenting him when he is dead and wishing for him again This hapned in the case of Manlius Capitolinus who being suspected to design against their liberty was by the people thrown headlong down the rock and in a short time exceedingly regretted The words of our Author are these Populum brevi posteaquam ab eo periculum nullum erat desiderium ejus tenuit When their fear of him was over their affection revived And in another place where he shows the accidents which hapned in Syracuse after the death of Girolamo Nephew to Hierone he says Haec natura multitudinis est aut humiliter servit aut superbe dominatur The nature of the Multitude is to be servilly obedient or insolently Tyrannical Things being thus I know not whether I shall not seem too bold to undertake the defence of a thing which all the world opposes and run my self upon a necessity of either quitting it with disgrace or pursuing it with scandal yet methinks being to maintain it with arguments not force it should not be so criminal I say then in behalf of the multitude that what they are charged withal by most Authors may be charged upon all private persons in the world and especially upon Princes for whoever lives irregularly and is not restrained by the Law is subject to the same exorbitancies and will commit as bad faults as the most dissolute multitude in the world And this may be easily known if it be considered how many Princes there have been and how few of them good I mean of such Princes as have despised and broke thorow those Laws which were intended to restrain them The Kings in Egypt were not anciently of this sort for they were govern'd by Laws in those Provinces from the very beginning and the Kings of Sparta were the same Nor need we look back so far for examples we have the Kings of France in our own days whose Kingdom in my judgment is at this time the most regular and best govern'd in the world Those Princes therefore who are born under such Laws and Constitutions and obliged to live by them are not to be reckoned or compared with the dissolute and mutinous multitude but they are to be considered with a multitude
General is either forc'd to fight or to fly in which case it is incomparably more safe to hazard all in a Battel than to lose all in a Flight Which being so we see there are many causes that constrain a General to fight upon disadvantage among which if want of mony be one there is no more reason we should therefore call that the sinews of war than any of the rest which do the same thing so that mony is not so much the snews of war as good souldiers 't is true mony is requisite for the carrying on of a war but not principally and in the first place for good souldiers have many times been contented without it though it is but seldom they want it for 't is as impossible for good souldiers to want mony as it is for mony alone to make good souldiers And this is clear by the testimony of Historians in a thousand places Pericles persuaded the Athenians to a war with all Peloponnesus and assured them of success upon consideration of their industry and riches the Athenians undertook the War and for some time prospered with their industry but at last it appeared that the conduct and discipline of the Spartans was too hard for the Athenians industry and treasure Livy desides this controversie the best of any man where in his comparison of Commanders enquiring what would have been the event if Alexander the Great had turn'd his Arms against the Romans he declares that in war there are three things fundamentally necessary good Souldiers good Officers and good fortune and then arguing whether Alexander or the Romans were more considerable in those three points he concludes without the least mention of mony It is not improbable but the Campani of whom we have spoken in the former Chapter when they undertook the assistance of the Sidicins against the Samnites measured their power more by their mony than their men from whence it hapned that ' being defeated in two Battels they were forced to submit and become tributary to the Romans CHAP. XI 'T is not discretion to enter into strict amity with a Prince whose reputation is greater than his strength THe Sidicins were in a great error to desire the assistance of the Campani against the Samnites as being by reason of their luxury unable to assist them but the error of the Capuans was greater in not knowing their own weakness and incapacity to defend them both their errors Livy has very well described in these words Campani magis nomen in auxilium Sidicinorum quam vires ad praesidium attulerunt The Capuans made a great noise but they brought no force to the relief of the Sidicins And here it is not unseasonable to consider that the leagues which are made with Princes whose distance is too great or power too little to relieve one are more honourable than safe and give more reputation than security to the person that desires them This was experienced by the Florentines in the year 1489 when the Pope and King of Naples invaded them for they were at that time confederate with the King of France yet they had more reputation than assistance thereby The same would happen likewise to such of the Italian Princes as should confederate with Maximilian the Emperor and in confidence of his alliance undertake any great enterprize because that alliance would be one of those that bring more reputation than relief So then as it was a great error in the Capuans when they were unable to defend themselves to undertake the protection of the Sidicins so it is and will be the same in whoever follows their example It was the same case with the Tarentini who would needs interpose betwixt the Samnites and the Romans to mediate a peace for when both Romans and Samnites were in the field and their Armies preparing for an engagement the Tarentini sent Embassadors to the Consul to let him know from the Senate of the Tarentini that they would have peace betwixt them and the Samnites and that they were resolved to take Arms against them which refused it But the Consul smiling at their imprudence in the presence of the said Embassadors caused a charge to be sounded and immediately marching his Army against the enemy he let them see by his proceedings what answer they deserved Thus you have seen to what errors Princes are subject who undertake the protection of other States I shall now in the next Chapter remonstrate what ways are most convenient for their own proper defence CHAP. XII Vpon an apprehension of being invaded whether it be better to make war or expect it AMong wise men and very good Souldiers I have heard it often disputed whether when two Princes are of equal strength and one of them designing war visibly against the other it be better for that Prince which is like to be invaded to sit still and expect him at home or to begin with him and make the first inroad himself There are arguments on both sides and they who think it best to be the aggressor and fall upon the Enemy first may alledge the Counsel which Craesus gave to Cyrus when being with his Army upon the Frontiers of the Massageti Thamyris Queen of that Country sent to him to take his choice whether she should fight him within her Country or upon the Frontiers if he desired to advance she would stand still and expect him if he had rather fight where he was she would be with him immediately when it came to be debated in Counsel Craesus contrary to the opinion of the rest was for marching to her and the reason he gave was because if she should be beaten at any distance Cyrus would get but little of her Country for she would have time to recruit whereas if she were beaten at home he would be able to sit so close upon her skirts that she being never capable of rallying or bringing another Army into the field must of necessity lose her whole Kingdom Hanibal gave the same Counsel to Antiochus assuring him that if the Romans were any way to be conquered it was by carrying the war into Italy for by so doing he might have the benefit of their Arms their Wealth and their Allies but whilst the war was abroad and Italy undisturbed he would leave the man inexhaustible magazine that would supply them with what and wheresoever they had occasion and at last Hanibal concluded that Rome was to be taken more easily than the Empire and Italy it self than any of its Provinces Agathocles being unable to resist the Carthaginians at home invaded their borders and forc'd them to a peace and Scipio in the same manner to remove the war out of Italy transported it into Africk Those who are on the other side do argue as stifly that there can be nothing more dangerous than to hazard an Army in an enemies Country at a great distance from their own and they produce the Athenians for an instance who whilst
Pistoia which 15 years since as it is now was divided into the Panciatichi and Cancellieri only then they were at open defyance which now they are not After many contests and disputes among themselves they proceeded to blood to the plundering and demolishing one anothers houses and committing all other hostilities imaginable The Florentines whose business it was to unite them used this third way which rather encreased than mitigated their tumults so that weary of that way and grown wiser by experience they made use of the second banished some of the Ring-leaders and imprisoned the rest whereby they not only quieted their differences then but have kept them so ever since But doubtless the safest way had been to cut them off at first and if those executions were forborn then by us or have been since by any other Commonwealth it is for no other cause but that they require a certain generosity and greatness of spirit that in weak Commonwealths is hardly to be found And these are the errors which as I said in the beginning are committed by the Princes of our times when they are to determine in such great controversies for they should inform themselves how others have comported in the same cases before them but they are so weak by reason of the slightness of our present education and their unexperience in History that they look upon the examples of the ancients as inhumane or impossible So that our modern opinions are as remote from the truth as that saying of our wise men was upon a time Che bisognavatener Pistoiacon le parti Pisacon le fortezze That Pistoia was to be kept under by factions and Pisa by a Citadel but they were mistaken in both What my judgment is about Citadels and such kind of Fortresses I have delivered elsewhere so as in this place I shall only demonstrate how unpracticable it is to keep Towns in subjection by fomenting their differences and factions and first it is impossible to keep both parties true to you be you Prince or Commonwealth or whatever for men are naturally so inconstant it cannot be that those parties which favour you to day should be affected to you always for they will still look out for some new Patron and Protector so that by degrees one of the parties taking some disgust against you the next War that happens you run a great hazard of losing your Town If it be under the Government of a State the City is in more danger than in the other case because each party looks out for friends among the great ones and will spare no pains nor mony to corrupt them From whence two great inconveniences do arise One is you can never make them love you because by reason of the frequent alteration of Governors and putting in sometimes a person of one humour and sometimes another of another they can never be well govern'd And then the other is by this fomenting of Factions your State must be necessarily divided Blondus speaking of the passages betwixt the Florentines and Pistoians confirms what we have said in these words Mentreche i Florentini disâ—gnavano de riunir Pistoia divisono se Medesimi Whilst the Florentines thought to have united the Pistoians they divided themselves In the year 1501. Arezzo revolted from the Florentines and the Valleys di Tenere and Chiana were entirely over-run by the Vitelli and Duke Valentine Whereupon Monsieur de Lant was sent from the King of France to see all that they had lost restored to the Florentines Wherever Monsieur de Lant came observing the persons that came to visit him did still profess themselves of the party of Morzocco he was much dissatisfied with their factions and more that they should declare themselves so freely for said he if in France any man should pronounce himself of the King's party he would be sure to be punished because it would imply that there was a party against the King and it was his Masters desire that his Kingdom and Cities should be all of a mind If therefore a Prince believes there is no way for him to keep his Towns in obedience but by keeping up Factions it is a certain argument of his weakness for being unable by force and courage to keep them under he betakes himself to these pernicious arts which in peaceable times may palliate a little but when troubles and adversity come will assuredly deceive him CHAP. XXVIII A strict eye is to be kept upon the Citizens for many times under pretence of Officiousness and Piety there is hid a principle of Tyranny The City of Rome being distressed for want of provisions and the publick stores being unable to supply it it came into the thoughts of Spurius Melius a rich Citizen of those times to furnish the Common people gratis out of his own private stock whereby he wrought himself so far into the favour of the people that the Senate suspecting the ill consequences of his bounty began to conspire his destruction before his interest became too great to which purpose they created a Dictator who put him to death from whence it may be observed that many times those actions which seem charitable and pious at first sight and are not reasonable to be condemned are notwithstanding cruel and dangerous for a State if not corrected in time To make this more clear I say a Commonwealth cannot be well governed nor indeed subsist without the assistance and ministry of powerful and great men and yet on the other side that power and reputation of particular Citizens is the occasion of tyranny To regulate this inconvenience it is necessary that seeing there must be great men things should be so ordered that they may have praise and reputation by such things as are rather useful than prejudicial to the State Wherefore it is carefully to be observed what ways they take to acquire their reputation and they are usually two either publick or private The publick way is when they arrive at their reputation by some good counsel or some great exploit which they have atchieved for the benefit of the publick and this way of reputation is not only not to be precluded to the Citizens but to be opened by such promises of reward for their good counsels or actions as may both dignify and inrich them and when a reputation is gained by these plain and sincere ways it is never to be feared But when their courses are private which is the other of the two ways they are dangerous nay totally pernitious Those private ways are by obliging particular persons by lending them mony by marrying their relations by defending them against the Magistrates and doing several other particular favours which may encourage their Clients to violate the Laws and vitiate the Commonwealth for which cause it ought to be so well fortified with good Laws that the endeavors of such ambitious men may be either discouraged or defeated and on the other side rewards proposed to such as
but told them Quod Romani si vincuntur non minuuntur animis nec si vincunt insolescere solent That 〈◊〉 mans were never dejected by ill forâ—une nor elated by good The Venetians acted quite the other way who having got a little good fortune ascribing it to a wrong cause as if it had proceeded from their own power and virtue had the insolence to call the King of France Son of St. Mark and taking a fancy that they should bring their Commonwealth to as great a condition of grandeur and power as the Romans they despis'd the Church and all the Princes of Italy besides Afterwards when their fortune began to change and they received a small defeat at Vaila by the French they lost their whole Empire in a day part revolted and part they gave up themselves to the Pope and King of Spain and so much had they abandoned themselves to fear and consternation that they sent Embassadors to the Emperor to make themselves his Tributaries and writ poor and mean Letters to the Pope to move him to compassion and to this extremity of dejection they were brought in four days time by the loss but of one half of their Army for the other of their Proveditory retreated and came off safe to Verona with more than 25000 horse and foot so that had there been any courage either in the Citizens or Senate they might quickly have recruited and shewn their force again and if they could not have conquered they might at least have lost all with more reputation or possibly have brought the enemy to some honourable accord but the poorness of their spirit and the illness of their military discipline took from them at one time both their courage and state and so it will be with whosoever follows the example of the Venetians for this insolence in good fortune and dejection in bad proceeds from their manner of education which if vain and idle will make you so too whereas if it be otherwise it will give you a better notion of the World and teach you in both fortunes to behave your self with more moderation and as this is true in single persons so it is in Commonwealths which are good or bad according to their manner of living We have often said it before and think it not amiss to repeat it again that the foundation of all Governments consists in their Military discipline and that where that is defective neither their Laws nor any thing else can be good for thorow the whole tract of this History it appears that there is a necessity your Militia should be good and that cannot be good but by continual exercise which you cannot be sure of unless it consists of your own Subjects and because you are not always in War and it is impossible you shall be therefore it is necessary that they be exercised in times of Peace which is not to be done by any but your own Subjects in respect of the charge Camillus as is said before marched out with his Army against the Tuscans but his Soldiers having had a sight of the Enemy found their Army so great that they were discouraged and dismay'd and thought themselves so much inferior that they were not able to fight theâ— Camillus understanding this terror in his Camp went up and down among the Soldiers and having reprehended their fear and said many things to encourage them and drive that fancy out of their heads at last without further directions Come said he Courage Quod quisque didicit aut consuevit faciat Do what you have been taught and accustomed I desire no more From whence it may be collected that he would not have used those words had not his Army been exercised before and that in times of Peace as well as War For no good is to be expected nor no General to trust himself to an unexperienced or undisciplined Army which will certainly be his ruine though he were as good a Commander as Hanibal himself And the reason is because when an Army is engaged the General cannot be present in all places to supply all defects and remedy all errors so that he must necessarily miscarry unless he has such persons disposed up and down in the Army as are capable of understanding his mind and executing his Orders Which being so the Roman discipline is to be followed and the Citizens of every City are to be inured to their Arms in times of Peace as well as war that when they are brought to fight they may not be at a loss or meet with any thing new or unaccustomed to them by which means it will come to pass that they will not be surprized or terrified in any condition but retain still the same courage and sence of their dignity But where the Citizens are undisciplin'd and rely more upon their fortune than experience their hearts will change with their fortune and they will give the same testimony of themselves as the Venetians have done CHAP. XXXII The ways which some people have taken to prevent a Peace THe Circei and the Velitrae two of the Roman Colonies revolted in hopes the Latine would have been able to defend them The Latines being defeated and they frustrated of their hopes it was the advice of several Citizens that they should send Embassadors to Rome to reconcile themselves to the Senate But those who had been ring-leaders in the defection apprehending the punishment would fall heavy upon their heads perverted that design and to run things beyond all possibility of Terms they incited the people to arm and invade the Frontiers of the Romans And doubtless when Prince or Commonwealth are desirous to prevent an agreement there is no safer nor surer way than by running the people into some unpardonable offence that the fear of being punish'd may keep them averse from all overtures of Peace After the first War betwixt the Carthaginians and Romans those Soldiers which had been employed by the Carthaginians in Sicily and Sardigna as soon as the Peace was concluded went over into Africa where being denyed or delayed in the demands of their pay they took Arms and putting themselves under the command of two of their Officers Matho and Spendio they plundered several of the Carthaginian Towns and possessed themselves of others The Carthaginians to try all ways before they came to extremity sent Asdrubal on of their Principal Citizens Embassador to them who having been formerly their General it was probable might have some Authority among them Asdrubal being arrived and Matho and Spendio desirous to put the Soldiers beyond all possibility of pardon persuaded them that the best and most secure way would be for them to kill all the Carthaginians that were Prisoners with them and Asdrubal among the rest Whereupon they killed them all with a thousand circumstances of cruelty and torture to which piece of wickedness they added another by publishing an Edict importing That all the Carthaginians which should be taken for the
Narrative of all proceedings both within the City and without THE TABLE OF THE Florentine History Book I. THe Northern Nations healthful and prolifick pag. 1 Their Method of evacuation upon their excessive encrease ibid. Their excessive encrease the ruine of the Roman Empire ib. The Western Gothes the first invaders of that Empire ib. Rome sack'd by them under the command of Alaricus 2 Boniface Governor of Africk for the Emperor ib. Gallia over-run by the Franks and from them called France ib. The Hâ—nni conquer and denominate Hungaria ib. Britain called Anglia from the Angli ib. The Hanni invade Italy under Attila ib. Attila besieges and takes Aquilegia ib. He advances to Rome but retires at the request of the Pope 3 The Hanni driven back over the Danube return home ib. The first residence of the Roman Emperors at Ravenna ib. New Emperors elected by the Romans upon the non-residence of their old ib. The Lombards invade Italy ib. Odoacres call'd King of Rome and the first of the Barbarians which thought of fixing in Italy ib. The old Empire divided into Cantons ib. Theodorick invades Italy slays Odoacres calls himself King of Rome and held his residence at Ravenna ib. Theodorick dies 4 Ballasarius General for Justinian the Emperor ib. Totila takes sacks and burns Rome ib. Narsâ—tes a new General for Juskinian ib. Longinus alters the Government in Italy ib. Alboâ—ns kill'd by the conspiracy of his Wife ib. The authority of the Bishops of Rome began to encrease ib. Bishops of Rome employed as Ministers by the Emperors and Kings and sometimes executed by them 7 The Eastern Empire destroyed in the times of Heracleus the Emperor ib. The King of France exempts the Pope from all humane jurisdiction 8 Pascal created Pope ib. The original of Cardinals ib. Eugenius the second Pope ib. Ospurcus made Pope changes his name ib. The original of Pisa ib. The Government of Italy anno 931 ib. Agabito Pope 9 Gregory the fifth Pope expelled and restored devests the Romans of their power of creating Emperors and confers it upon six Princes of Germany ib. Clement the second Pope ib. Nicholas the second Pope excludes the Romans and renounces the Papal Elections to the suffrage of Cardinals only ib. Schism and anti-Popes in the Church ib. The difference between Henricus and the Pope the ground of the Guelf and Ghibilin factions ib. The original of the Kingdom of Sicily ib. Urbin the second Pope ib. The first Croissade ib. Pascal the second Pope 11 Alexander the third Pope ib. A new anti-Pope ib. The Pope's penance to King Henry of England upon the complaints about Thomas Becket ib. Celestin the third Pope 12 Honorius the third Pope ib. The Orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis instituted 1218. ib. The Titles of King of Naples and Jerusalem annexed ib. The house of the Esti made Lords of Ferrara 13 The Guelfs side with the Church the Ghibilins with the Emperor ib. Innocent the fourth Pope ib. Clement the fifth Pope ib. Adrian the fifth Pope ib. Nicholas the third of the house of Ursin 14. The first introduction of Popes Nephews ib. Martin the tenth Pope ib. Pope Celestine resigns to Boniface the eighth ib. The first Iubilees ordained by Boniface every 100 years 15 Benedictus chosen dies and is succeeded by Clement the fifth who removed his residence into France 1036. ib. John the 22th Pope ib. The Visconti a great Family in Milan made Princes of that City by the extirpation of the Torri ib. The first Duke of Milan ib. The Dukedom of Milan falls to the Flora's 16 The original of the Venetians ib. Candia given to the Venetians by the French 17 Benedict the twelfth Pope ib. Clement the sixth Pope ib. The Iubilee reduced to 50 years 18 Avignon given to the Pope by the Queen of Naples ib. Innocent the sixth Pope ib. Urban the fifth Pope ib. Gregory the twelfth Pope ib. The Pope returns to Rome after 71 years residence in France ib. Urban the sixth Pope ib. Clement the seventh anti-Pope ib. Guns first used between the Genoeses and Venetians ib. Urban and Clement succeeded by Boniface the 9th and Benedict the 13th ib. Boniface dies Innocent succeeds him and Gregory the 12th Innocent 19 Alexander the fifth elected and succeeded by John the 23d ib. Three Popes at once ib. Martin the fifth ib. The Queen of Naples calls in the King of Arragon to her assistance adopts him and makes Braccio de Montone her General 20 The state of Italy ib. Book II. THe convenience of Colonies 22 The Original of Florence 23 The denomination of Florence ib. The first division of Florence 24 The Guelf and Ghibilin Faction in Florence ib. The Union and Government of the City of Florence 25 The Antlani ib. The Captain of the People and Podesta ib. Their Militia ib. A generous Custom ib. Manfredi King of Naples a great Patron of the Ghibilins ib. Carlo d' Angio call'd into Italy by the Pope 26 A new model of Government in Florence ib. New commotions in Florence ib. A second model by the Guelfs 27 Gregory the tenth Pope ib. Florence under excommunication ib. Innocent the 5th ib. The jealousie of the Pope ib. Nicholas the third Pope ib. The Ghibilins return ib. Martinus Pope 28 The Government of Florence reformed by the Citizens ib. The three Priors to govern two months to be chosen out of the City indifferently ib. The Signori ib. Discord between the Nobility and People ib. The Priory and Gonfalonier ib. Persuasions to the Nobility to be quiet 29 The same to the People ib. New reformation in Florence 1298 30 The difference in the Family of the Cancellieri the occasion and consequence ib. The Bianchi and Neri ib. Charles of Valois made Governor of Florence 31 New troubles occasioned by Corso Donati 32 The Medici and Giugni 33 Florence burned 1304. ib. Corso Donati condemned 34 His Death ib. New divisions in Florence 35 Castruccio Castracani 36 The Council of the Signori to sit forty months whereas before it was occasional 37 Election of Magistrates by Imborsation ib. Romondo da Cordona General of the Florentines ib. The Duke of Athens Governor of Florence ib. Lodowic the Emperor called into Italy 38 The death of Castruccio and the Duke of Calabria ib. New reformation in Florence ib. The Florentines quiet at home ib. Their Buildings ib. A Captain of the Guards 39 Maffeo da Marradi ib. Lucca sold to the Florentines 40 Taken from them by the Pisans ib. The Duke of Athens ib. The Speech of one of the Senators to the Duke of Athens 41 The Duke's Answer 42 The Duke of Athens chosen Prince by the People ib. His practices in Florence ib. Three conspiracies against the Duke at one time 43 Commotion in France 44 The Duke expell'd 45 His character ib. New reformation 46 The Nobility deposed ib. The Nobility attempt to recover their authority 47 The people arm against them ib. The Nobility utterly depressed 48 Book III.
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
couragious nor can any think be objected sufficient to eclipse these virtues though he was indeed addicted to Women took too much pleasure in the company of witty and satyrical Men and would play at boys play sometimes beneath the dignity of his office for he would play many times with his Children at all the most idle and Childish recreations they would put him to So that if the gravity of his life be considered with its levity he will seem to be composed of two several persons united by an almost impossible conjunction The last part of his days was full of sorrow and disquiet occasioned by the distempers of his body for he was sorely afflicted with intolerable pains at his Stomack which brought him so low that in April 1492 he died in the 43 year of his age Never was there any man not only in Florence but Italy who departed with more reputation for his wisdom nor more lamentation to his Country and because upon his death many desolations were like to ensue the Heavens themselves did seem to presage it The spire of the Church of S. Riparata was struck with thunder with such fury that a great part of the steeple was destroyed by it to the great consternation of the City All the Inhabitants of Florence and the Princes of Italy bewailed him which was particulary manifested by their several compliments of condolency and whether they had reson or not for what they did the effects which succeeded a while after did clearly demonstrate for being deprived of his Counsels Italy could not find one remaining able to satiate or restrain the ambition of Lodovico Duke of Milan for want of which after his death such seeds of dissention brake forth as have perplexed and embroiled all Italy ever since THE PRINCE Together with the ORIGINAL OF THE GVELF and GHIBILIN Life of CASTRVCCIO CASTRACANI Murther of VITELLI c. by Duke VALENTINO State of FRANCE State of GERMANY By NICOLAS MACHIAVEL Faithfully Englished LONDON Printed for Iohn Starkey Charles Harper and Iohn Amery in Fleetstreet 1680. NICOLO MACHIAVELLI TO THE Most Illustrious LORENZO Son of PIERO de MEDICI THose who desire the favour of a Prince do commonly introduce themselves by presenting him with such things as he either values much or does more than ordinarily delight in for which reason he is frequently presented with Horses Arms Cloath of Gold Iewels and such Ornaments as are sutable to his Quality and Grandeur Being ambitious to present my self to your Highness with some testimony of my devotions towards you in all my Wardrobe I could not find any thing more precious at least to my self than the knowledge of the Conduct and Atchievements of Great Men which I learn'd by long conversation in modern affairs and a continual investigation of old after long and diligent examination having reduced all into a small Volume I do presume to present to your Highness and though I cannot think it a work fit to appear in your presence yet my confidence in your bounty is such I hope it may be accepted considering I was not capable of more than presenting you with a faculty of understanding in a short time what for several years with inâ—inite labour and hazard I had been gathering together Nor have I beautified or adorned it with Rhetorical Ornations or such outward imbellishments as are usual in such descriptions I had rather it should pass without any approbation than owe it to any thing but the truth and gravity of the matter I would not have it imputed to me as presumption if an inferior person as I am pretend not only to treat of but to prescribe and regulate the proceedings of Princes for as they who take the Landskip of a Country to consider the Mountains and the nature of the higher places do descend ordinarily into the Plains and dispose themselves upon the Hills to take the prospect of the Valleys in like manner to understand the nature of the people it is necessary to be a Prince and to know the nature of Princes 't is as requisit to be of the people May your Highness then accept this Book with as much kindness as it is presented and if you please diligently and deliberately to reslect upon it you will find in it my extreme desire that your Highness may arrive at that Grandeur which Fortune and your Accomplishments do seem to presage from which pinacle of Honour if your Highness vouchsafes at any time to look down upon things below you will see how unjustly and how continually I have been exposed to the malignity of fortune Machiavel's Prince CHAP. I. The several sorts of Governments and after what manner they are obtained THere never was nor is at this day any Government in the World by which one Man has rule and dominion over another but it is either a Commonwealth or a Monarchy Monarchies are either hereditary where the ancestors of the Soveraign have been a long time in possession or where they are but new The new are either so wholly and entirely as Milan was to Francis Sforza or annex'd to the hereditary Dominions of the Conquerour as the Kingdom of Naples to the Kingdom of Spain These territories thus acquired are accustomed either to be subject to some Prince or to live at liberty and free and are subdued either by his auxiliaries or own forces by his good fortune or conduct CHAP. II. Of Hereditary Principalities I Shall omit speaking of Commonwealths as having discoursed of them largely elsewhere and write in this place only of Principalities and how according to the foregoing division the said Principalities may be governed and maintained I do affirm then that hereditary States and such as have been accustomed to the Family of their Prince are preserved with less difficulty than the new and because it is sufficient not to transgress the examples of their predecessors and next to comply and frame themselves to the accidents that occur So that if the Prince be a person of competent industry he will be sure to keep himself in the throne unless he be supplanted by some great and more than ordinary force and even then when so supplanted fortune can never turn tail or be adverse to the usurper but he will stand fair to be restored Of this Italy affords us an example in the Duke of Ferrara who supported bravely against the invasion of the Venetians in 1484 and afterwards against Pope Iulius 10 upon no other foundation but his antiquity in that Government for a natural Prince has not so much occasion or necessity to oppress his Subjects whereby it follows he must be better beloved and retain more of the affections of his People unless some extraordinary vices concur to make him odious so that the succession and coherence of his Government takes away the causes and memory of innovations for one new change leaves always as in buildings a toothing and aptitude of another CHAP. III. Of mixt Principalities BUt the
difficulties consist in Governments lately acquired especially if not absolutely new but as members annexed to the territories of the Usurper in which case such a Government is called mixed The tumults and revolutions in such Monarchies proceed from a natural crosness and difficulty in all new conquests for Men do easily part with their Prince upon hopes of bettering their condition and that hope provokes them to rebel bâ—t most commonly they are mistaken and experience tells them their condition is much worse This proceeds from another natural and ordinary cause necessitating the new Prince to overlay or disgust his new subjects by quartring his Army upon them Taxes or a thousand other inconveniences which are the perpetual consequents of conquest So that you make them your Enemies who suffer and are injured by your usurpation but cannot preserve their friendship who introduced you because you are neither able to satisfy their expectation or imploy strong remedies against them by reason of your obligations wherefore though an usurper be never so strong and his Army never so numerous he must have intelligence with the natives if he means to conquer a Province For these reasons Lewis XII of France quickly subdued Milan and lost it as quickly for the same People which open'd him their gates finding themselves deceived in their hopes and disappointed in the future benefits which they expected could not brook nor comport with the haughtiness of their new Soveraign 't is very true Countries that have rebelled and are conquered the second time are recovered with more difficulty for the defection of the People having taken off all obligation or respect from the Usurper he takes more liberty to secure himself by punishing offenders exposing the suspected and fortifying where ever he finds himself weak so that Count Lodovick having been able to rescue Milan out of the hands of the French the first time only by harrasing and infesting its borders the second time he recovered it it was necessary for him to arm and confederate the whole World against the said King and that his Army should be beaten and driven out of Italy and this happened from the foresaid occasions Nevertheless the French were twice dispossess'd The general reasons of the first we have already discoursed it remains now that we take a prospect of the second and declare what remedies the said King Lewis had or what another may have in his condition to preserve himself better in his new conquests than the King of France did before him I say then that Provinces newly acquir'd and joyn'd to the ancient territory of him who conquer'd them are either of the same Country or Language or otherwise In the first case they are easily kept especially if the People have not been too much accustomed to liberty and to secure the possession there needs no more than to extirpate the Family of the Prince which governed before for in other things maintaining to them their old condition there being no discrepancy in their customs Men do acquiesce and live quietly as has been seen in the cases of Burgundy Bretagne Gascogne and Normandy which have continued so long under the Goverment of France for though there be some difference in their language nevertheless their Laws and customs being alike they do easily consist He therefore who acquires any thing and desires to preserve it is obliged to have a care of two things more particulary one is that the Family of the former Prince be extinguished the other that no new Laws or Taxes be imposed whereby it will come to pass that in a short time it may be annexed and consolidated with his old Principality But where Conquest is made in a Country differing in Language Customs and Laws there is the great difficulty their good fortune and great industry is requisit to keep it and one of the best and most efficacious expedients to do it would be for the Usurper to live there himself which would render his possession more secure and durable as the great Turk has done in Greece who in despight of all his practices and policies to keep it in subjection had he not fixed his Imperial residence there would never have been able to have effected it For being present in Person disorders are discovered in the bud and prevented but being at a distance in some remote part they come only by hear-say and that when they are got to a head and commonly incurable Besides the Province is not subject to be pillaged by officers by reason of the nearness and accessibleness of their Prince which disposes those to love him who are good and those to dread him who are otherwise and if any foreigner attacks it he must do it with more care and circumspection in respect that the Princes residence being there it will be harder for him to lose it There is another Remedy rather better than worse and that is to plant Colonies in one or two places which may be as it were the Keys of that State and either that must be done of necessity or an Army of Horse and Foot be maintained in those parts which is much worse for Colonies are of no great expence The Prince sends and maintains them at very little charge and intrenches only upon such as he is constrain'd to dispossess of their Houses and Land for the subsistance and accommodation of the new Inhabitants who are but few and a small part of the State they also who are injur'd and offended living dispers'd and in poverty cannot do any mischief and the rest being quiet and undisturb'd will not stir lest they should mistake and run themselves into the same condition with their Neighbours I conclude likewise That those Colonies which are least chargeable are most faithful and inoffensive and those few who are offended are too poor and dispers'd to do any hurt as I said before And it is to be observ'd Men are either to be flatter'd and indulged or utterly destroy'd because for small offences they do usually revenge themselves but for great ones they cannot so that injury is to be done in such a manner as not to fear any revenge But if in stead of Colonies an Army be kept on foot it will be much more expensive and the whole revenue of that Province being consum'd in the keeping it the acquisition will be a loss and rather a prejudice than otherwise by removing the Camp up and down the Country and changing their quarters which is an inconvenience every man will resent and be ready to revenge and they are the most dangerous and implacable Enemies who are provok'd by insolences committed against them in their own houses In all respects therefore this kind of guard is unprofitable whereas on the other side Colonies are useful Moreover he who is in a Province of a different constitution as is said before ought to make himself head and Protector of his inferior Neighbours and endeavour with all diligence to weaken and debilitate such
The one was in Asia where Niger General of the Asiatick Army had proclaimed himself Emperor The other in the west where Albinus the General aspired to the same and thinking it hazardous to declare against both he resolved to oppose himself against Niger and cajole and wheedle Albinus to whom he writ word That being chosen Emperor by the Senate he was willing to receive him to a participation of that dignity gave him the title of Caesar and by consent of the Senate admitted him his Collegue which Albinus embraced very willingly and thought him in earnest but when Severus had overcome Niger put him to death and setled the affairs of the East being returned to Rome he complained in the Senate against Albinus as a person who contrary to his obligations for the benefits received from him had endeavoured treacherously to murther him told them that he was obliged to march against him to punish his ingratitude and afterwards following him into France he executed his design deprived him of his Command and put him to death He then who strictly examines the Actions of this Prince will find him fierce as a Lyon subtile as a Fox feared and reverenced by every body and no way odious to his Army Nor will it seem strange that he though newly advanced to the Empire was able to defend it seeing his great reputation protected him against the hatred which his people might have conceived against him by reason of his Rapine But his Son Antoninus was an excellent person likewise endued with transcendant parts which rendered him admirable to the people and grateful to the Soldiers for he was Martial in his Nature patient of labour and hardship and a great despiser of all sensuality and softness which recommended him highly to his Armies Nevertheless his fury and cruelty was so immoderately great having upon several private and particular occasions put a great part of the people of Rome and all the inhabitants of Alexandria to death that he fell into the hatred of the whole world and began to be feared by his Confidents that were about him so that he was killed by one of his Captains in the middle of his Camp From whence it may be observed That these kind of Assassinations which follow upon a deliberate and obstinate resolution cannot be prevented by a Prince for he who values not his own life can commit them when he pleases but they are to be feared the less because they happen but seldom he is only to have a care of doing any great injury to those that are about him of which error Antoninus was too guilty having put the Brother of the said Captain to an ignominious death threatned the Captain daily and yet continued him in his Guards which was a rash and pernicious act and prov'd so in the end But to come to Commodus who had no hard task to preserve his Empire succeeding to it by way of inheritance as Son to Marcus for that to satisfie the people and oblige the Soldiers he had no more to do but to follow the footsteps of his Father But being of a brutish and cruel disposition to exercise his rapacity upon the people he indulged his Army and allowed them in all manner of licentiousness Besides prostituting his Dignity by descending many times upon the Theater to fight with the Gladiators and committing many other acts which were vile and unworthy the Majesty of an Emperor he became contemptible to the Souldiers and growing odious to one party and despicable to the other they conspired and murthered him Maximinus was likewise a Martial Prince and addicted to the Wars and the Army being weary of the Effeminacy of Alexander whom I have mentioned before having slain him they made Maximinus Emperor but he possessed it not long for two things contributed to make him odious and despised One was the meanness of his extraction having kept sheep formerly in Thrace which was known to all the world and made him universally contemptable The other was that at his first coming to the Empire by not repairing immediately to Rome and putting himself into possession of his Imperial seat he had contracted the imputation of being cruel having exercised more than ordinary severity by his Prefects in Rome and his Lieutenants in all the rest of the Empire so that the whole world being provoked by the vileness of his birth and detestation of his cruelty in apprehension of his fury Africa the Senate and all the people both in Italy and Rome conspired against him and his own Army joyning themselves with them in their Leaguer before Aquileia finding it difficult to be taken weary of his cruelties and encouraged by the multitude of his Enemies they set upon him and slew him I will not trouble my self with Heliogabalus Macrinus nor Iulian who being all effeminate and contemptible were quickly extinguished But I shall conclude this discourse and say that the Princes of our times are not obliged to satisfie the Soldiers in their respective Governments by such extraordinary ways for though they are not altogether to be neglected yet the remedy and resolution is easie because none of these Princes have entire Armies brought up and inveterated in their several Governments and Provinces as the Armies under the Roman Empire were If therefore at that time it was necessary to satisfie the Soldiers rather than the people it was because the Soldiers were more potent At present it is more the interest of all Princes except the great Turk and the Soldan to comply with the people because they are more considerable than the Soldiers I except the Turk because he has in his Guards 12000 Foot and 15000 Horse constantly about him upon whom the strength and security of his Empire depends and it is necessary postponing all other respect to the people they be continued his freinds It is the same case with the Soldan who being wholly in the power of the Soldiers it is convenient that he also wave the people and insinuate with the Army And here it is to be noted that this Government of the Soldans is different from all other Monarchies for it is not unlike the Papacy in Christendom which can neither be called a new nor an hereditary Principality because the Children of the deceased Prince are neither Heirs to his Estate nor Lords of his Empire but he who is chosen to succeed by those who have the faculty of Election which Custom being of old the Government cannot be called new and by consequence is not subject to any of the difficulties wherewith a new one is infested because though the person of the Prince be new and perhaps the Title yet the Laws and Orders of State are old and disposed to receive him as if he were hereditary Lord. But to return to our business I say That whoever considers the aforesaid discourse shall find either hatred or contempt the perpetual cause of the ruine of those Emperors and be able to judge how it
But when a Prince discovers himself couragiously in favour of one party if he with whom you joyn overcome though he be very powerful and you seem to remain at his discretion yet he is obliged to you and must needs have a respect for you and Men are not so wicked with such signal and exemplary ingratitude to oppress you Besides Victories are never so clear and compleat as to leave the Conqueror without all sparks of reflexion and especially upon what is just But if your Confederate comes by the worst you are received by him and assisted whil'st he is able and becomest a Companion of his fortune which may possibly restore the. In the second place if they who contend be of such condition that they have no occasion to fear let which will overcome you are in purdence to declare your self the sooner because by assisting the one you contribute to the ruine of the other whom if your Confederate had been wise he oughtrather to have preserved so that he overcoming remains wholly at your discretion and by your assistance he must of necessity overcome And hear it is to be noted if he can avoid it a Prince is never to league himself with another more powerful than himself in an offensive War because in that case if he overcomes you remain at his mercy and Princes ought to be as cautious as possible of falling under the discretion of other people The Venetians when there was no necessity for it associated with France against the Duke of Milan and that association was the cause of their ruine But where it is not to be avoided as hapned to the Florentines when the Pope and the Spaniard sent their Armies against Lombardy there a Prince is to adhere for the reasons aforesaid Nor is any Prince of Government to imagine that in those cases any certain counsel can be taken because the affairs of this world are so ordered that in avoiding one mischief we fall commonly into another But a Man's wisdom is most conspicuous where he is able to distinguish of dangers and make choice of the least Moreover a Prince to show himself a Virtuoso and Honourer of all that is excellent in any Art whatsoever He is likewise to encourage and assure his Subjects that they may live quietly in peace and exercise themselves in their several Vocations whether marchandize Agriculture or any other employment whatever to the end that one may not forbear improâ—ing or imbellishing his Estate for fear it should be taken from him nor another advancing his Trade in apprehension of taxes but the Prince is rather to excite them by propositions of reward and immunities to all such as shall any way amplifie his Territory or powers He is obliged likewise at convenient times in the year to entertain the people by Feastings and Plays and Spectacles of Recreation and because all Cities divided into Companies or Wards he ought to have respect to those Societies be merry with them sometimes and give them some instance of his humanity and magnificence but always retaining the Majesty of his degree which is never to be debased in any case whatever CHAP. XXII of the Secretaries of Princes THe Election of his Ministers is of no small importance to a Prince for the first judgment that is made of him or his parts is from the persons he has about him when they are wise and faithful be sure the Prince is discreet himself who as he knew how to choose them able at first so he has known how to oblige them to be faithful but when his Ministers are otherwise it reflects shrewdly upon the Prnice for commonly the first error he commits is in the Election of his Servants No Man knew Antonio da Vanafro to be Secretary to Pandolfo Petrucci Prince of Sienna but he could judge Pandolfo to be aprudent Man for choosing such a one to his Minister In the capacities and parts of Men there are three sorts of degrees one Man understands of himself another understands what is explained and a third understands neither of himself nor by any Explanation The first is excellent the second commendable the third altogether unprofitable If therefore Pandolfus was not in the first rank he might be concluded in the second for whenever a Prince 〈◊〉 the judgment to know the good and the bad of what is spoken or done though his own invention be not excellent he can distinguish a good servant from a bad and exalt the one and correct the other and the Minister despairing of deluding him remains good in spight of his teeth But the business is how a Prince may understand his Minister and the rule for that is infallible When you observe your Officer more careful of himself than of you and all his actions and designs pointing at his own interest and advantage that Man will never be a good Minister nor ought you ever to repose any confidence in him for he who has the affairs of his Prince in his hand ought to lay aside all thoughts of himself and regard nothing but what is for the profit of his Master And on the otherside to keep him faithful the Prince is as much concerned to do for him by honouring him enriching him giving him good Offices and Preferments that the wealth and honour conferred by his Master may keep him from looking out for himself and the plenty and goodness of his Offices make him afraid of a change knowing that without his Princes favour he can never subsist When therefore the Prince and the Minister are qualified in this manner they may depend one upon the other But when 't is otherwise with them the end must be bad and one of them will be undone CHAP. XXIII How flatterers are to be avoided I Will not pass by a thing of great consequence being an error against which Princes do hardly defend themselves unless they be very wise and their judgment very good And that is about Flatterers of which kind of Cattle all Histories are full for Men are generally so fond of their own actions and so easily mistaken in them that it is not without difficulty they defend themselves against those sort of people and he that goes about to defend himself runs a great hazard of being despised For there is no other remedy against Flatterers than to let every body understand you are not disobliged by telling the truth yet if you suffer every body to tell it you injure your self and lessen your reverence Wherefore a wise Prince ought to go a third way and select out of his State certain discreet men to whom only he is to commit that liberty of speaking truth and that of such things as he demands and nothing else but then he is to inquire of every thing hear their opinions and resolve afterwards as he pleases and behave himself towards them in such sort that every one may find with how much the more freedom he speaks with so much the more kindness
actions but that she leaves the other half or little less to be governed by our selves Fortune I do resemble to a rapid and impetuous River which when swelled and enraged overwhelms the Plains subverts the Tâ—ees and the Houses forces away the Earth from one place and carries it to another every body fears every body shuns but no body knows how to resist it Yet though it be thus furious sometimes it does not follow but when it is quiet and calm men may by banks and fences and other provisions correct it in such manner that when it swells again it may be carried off by some Canal or the violence thereof rendered less licentious and destructive So it is with Fortune which shows her power where there is no predisposed virtue to resist it and turns all her force and impetuosity where she knows there are no banks no fences to restrain her If you consider Italy the seat of all these revolutions and what it was that caus'd them you will find it an open field without any bounds or Ramparts of secure it and that had it been defended by the Courage of their Ancestors as Germany and Spain and France have been those inundations had never hapned or never made such devastation as they have done And this I hold sufficient to have spoken in general against Fortune But restraining my self a little more to particulars I say it is ordinary to see a Prince happy one day and ruined the next without discerning any difference in his humor or Government and this I impute to the reasons of which I have discoursed largely before and one of them is because that Prince which relies wholly upon Fortune being subject to her Variations must of necessity be ruined I believe again that Prince may be happy whose manner of proceeding concerts with the times and he unhappy who cannot accommodate to them For in things leading to the end of their designs which every man has in his eye and they are riches and honour we see men have various methods of proceeding Some with circumspection others with heat some with violence others with cunning some with patience and others with fury and every one notwithstanding the diversity of their ways may possibly attain them Again we see two persons equally cautious one of them prospers and the other miscarriâ—s and on the other side two equally happy by different measures one being deliberate and the other as hasty and this proceeds from nothing but the condition of the times which suits or does not suit with the manner of their proceedings From hence arises what I have said That two persons by different operations do attain the same end whil'st two others steer the same Course and one of them succeeds and the other is ruined From hence likewise may be deduced the Vicissitudes of good for if to one who manages with deliberation and patience the times and conjuncture of affairs come about so favourably that his Conduct be in fashion he must needs be happy but if the face of affairs and the times change and he changes not with them he is certainly ruined Nor is there any man to be found so wise that knows how to accommodate or frame himself to all these varieties both because he cannot deviate from that to which Nature has inclined him as likewise because if a man has constantly prospered in one way it is no easie matter to persuade him to another and he that is so cautious being at a loss when time requires he should be vigorous must of necessity be destroyed whereas if he could turn with the times his fortune would never betray him Pope Iulius XI in all his Enterprizes acted with passion and vehemence and the times and accident of affairs were so sutable to his manner of proceeding that he prospered in whatever he undertook Consider his Expedition of Bolonia in the days of Messer Giovanni Benâ—ivogli The Vâ—netians were against it and the Kings of Spain and France were in treaty and had a mind to it themselves yet he with his promptitude and fury undertook it personally himself and that activity of his kept both Spaniard and Venetian in suspence the Venetians for fear the Spaniards in hopes to recover the whole Kingdom of Naples and the King of France came over to his side for seeing him in motion and desirous to make him his friend and thereby to correct the insolence of the Venetian he thought he could not deny him his assistance without manifest injustice so that Iulius with his rashness and huffing did that which never any other Pope could have done with all his cunning and insinuation For had he deferred his departure from Rome till all things had been put into exact order and his whole progress concluded as any other Pope would have done he could never have succeeded The King of France would have pretended a thousand excuses and others would have suggested twice as many fears I will pass by the rest of his Enterprizes which were all alike and prospered as well and the shortness of his life secured him against change for had the times fallen out so that he had been forced to proceed with accurate circumspection he would have certainly been ruined for he could never have left those ways to which his Nature inclined him I conclude then That whil'st the obstinacy of Princes consists with the motion of fortune 't is possible they may be happy but when once they disagree the poor Prince comes certainly to the ground I am of opinion likewise that 't is better to be hot and precipitate then cautious and apprehensive for fortune is a Woman and must be Hector'd to keep her under and 't is visible every day she suffers her self to be managed by those who are brisk and audacious rather than by those who are cold and phlegmatick in their Motions and therefore like a Woman she is always a friend to those who are young because being less circumspect they attack her with more security and boldness CHAP. XXVI An Exhortation to deliver Italy from the Barbarians HAving weighed therefore all that is said before and considered seriously with my self whether in this juncture of affairs in Italy the times were disposed for the advancement of a new Prince and whether there was competent matter that could give occasion to a virtuous and wise person to introduce such a form as would bring reputation to him and benefit to all his Subjects it seems to me that at this present so many things concur to the exaltation of a new Prince that I do not know any time that has been more proper than this and if as I said before for the Manifestation of the courage of Moses it was necessary that the Israelites should be Captives in Egypt for discovery of the Magnanimity of Cyrus that the Persians should be oppressed by the Medes and for the illustration of the excellence of Theseus that the Athenians should be banished and dispersed
though Cleomenes being a single person killed the Ephori as is said before and Romulus his Brother and Titus Tatius and afterwards imployed their authority to the advantage of the publick yet it is to be considered that the subjects neither of the one or the other were so vitious or depraved as those of whom we have treated in this Chapter and therefore they were able to do what they pleased and excuse it when it was done CHAP. XIX Though a weak Prince succeeds an excellent the Government may stand but if one weak Prince succeeds another 't is impossible IF the virtue and conduct of Romulus Numa and Tullius the three first Kings of Rome be considered it will be found to have been much for the advantage of that City to have its first King martial and fierce the second King quiet and religious and the third like the first active and war-like again For as after the first institution it was necessary there should be some-body to dispose the people to ways of Religion and civil conversation so it was necessary again after that that the next King should reassume the vigour and magnanimity of their predecessor otherwise the minds of the Citizens would have grown effeminate and the City have become a prey to any of its neighbours Wherefore it is to be considered that a Prince not altogether so valiant and enterprizing may maintain the Government upon the score of his Predecessor and injoy the fruits of his courage and labour but if it happens he be long lived and that he is not succeeded by a martial Prince to revive the activity of the Founder the Government must necessarily be ruined On the other side if two Princes immediately succeeding are martial and heroick they are observed to do great things and to advance the Government exceedingly David without doubt was a person no less excellent in military experience than in learning and wisdom and so great was his courage that he left his Kingdom to his Son Solomon in quiet and peace who by arts of peace rather than war injoyed it happily his time upon account of his Father but he could not leave it to Rehoboam as he had received it of his Father for Rehoboam being neither like his Grand-father in courage nor his Father in wisdom succeeded scarcely to the sixt part of his Empire Bajazet the Turkish Scholar though more studious of peace than of war injoyed the labours of Mahomet his Father who having like David subdued all his neighbours left him a Kingdom entire that might be peaceably maintained but had Bazjazet's Son Selimus now reigning taken after his Father and not his Grand-father that Empire had been ruined but he out-goes the glory of his Grandfather From hence may be observed that after an excellent magnificent Prince a pusillanimous may succeed and the Government stand but if one poor-spirited Prince succeeds another immediately 't is impossible it should subsist unless like France it be supported by its old Customs and Laws I call those Princes weak and pusillanimous who are not conversant nor addicted to the exercise of Arms and do conclude that the tranquillity of Numas's Reign which continued for many years was to be attributed to the courage and activity of Romulus which was revived again in Tullus the third King after whom followed Ancus a Prince of so excellent a temper that he knew how to comport as well in the calms of peace as the tempests of war His first practice was gentle and by methods of peace but finding he was look'd upon as effeminate and grew contemptible to his neighbours he perceived the way to preserve his dignity was to betake himself to martial courses and manage his affairs rather like Romulus than Numa From hence an useful example for all Princes may be taken and it may be observed that whoever is in the possession of a State and follows the example of Numa may either keep it or lose it according to the different circumstances of fortune or time But he who imitates Romulus and is arm'd with wisdom and prowess shall be sure to keep it unless some extraordinary and irresistible power intervenes to supplant him And 't is in probability to be thought that had not the third King of Rome prov'd a martial Prince and one who knew by his Arms to recover his declining reputation he could never or with great difficulty have regained it or performed those exploits which he did afterwards so that whilst Rome was a Monarchy and under the Government of Kings it was under a double danger of destruction either by the mildness or the tyranny of its Prince CHAP. XX. Two good Princes immediately succeeding may do great things and well-grounded Common-wealths having always a virtuous succession their Conquests and Acquisitions must of necessity be according WHen Monarchy was banished by the Romans their dangers were banished with them and they lay under no fear of either weak Prince or Tyrant for the command of the Empire was put into the hands of the Consuls who came to that authority not by inheritance or any indirect or violent ambition but by the suffrage of the people and were always excellent persons The City of Rome enjoying from time to time the benefit of their fortune and virtue might without much difficulty arrive at the highest top of greatness and dignity as it did in the same number of years as it was under the Government of Kings For we see in the examples of Philip of Macedon and his Son Alexander the great that a succession of two martial Princes without a peaceable interposed is sufficient to conquer the World And if it were possible in a Monarchy 't is easie in a Commonwealth in whose power it is to elect not only two but an infinite and continued succession of virtuous persons so that in a well-ordered Commonwealth the succession is constantly good CHAP. XXI How much that Prince or Commonwealth is to be condemned which neglects to train up Souldiers of its own THE Princes and Commonwealths of our times if to defend themselves or offend their enemy as occasion serves they be unable to bring Souldiers of their own into the Field they may thank themselves and acknowledge with Tullus that 't is not so much want of capacity in their subjects as want of wisdom in them for neglecting to train them For when Tullus came to the Crown Rome had been forty years together in peace during all Numa's Reign and there was not a man to be found who had ever seen the face of an enemy nevertheless his own designs being martial he resolved to make no use of the Samnites or Tuscans or any other Mercenary but as a wise Prince to discipline his own and his art and experience was such that in a short time he made them excellent Souldiers and there is nothing more certain than that where men are unapt for war the fault is not in the situation or nature of the place
only the Colonies but the Natives must be extinguished that they may fix themselves upon their Lands and possess themselves of their Goods and by these kind of people the Romans were three times invaded First by the Gauls who took Rome and as I said before drove the Tuscans out of Lombardy of which invasion Titus Livius gives two reasons one was the pleasantness of the Country and the delicacy of the Wine wherewith being then but ill provided in France they were infinitely taken the other was the Country was grown so exceedingly populous that it was not able to sustain its own natives whereupon the Princes of those parts judging it necessary to find them new quarters they appointed which were to transplant and putting Bellovesus and Sicovesus two French Princes at the head of them they sent one part of them into Italy and the other into Spain it was Bellovesus lot to invade Italy and he did it so effectually that he possessed himself of all Lombardy and made the first war upon the Romans that was ever made upon them by the French The second time they were invaded in this manner was likewise by the French and it was after the first Punic war in which invasion the Gauls lost above 200000 men betwixt Pisa and Piombino the third and last was by the Germans and Cimbrians who having defeated several Armies of the Romans were at last themselves defeated by Marius From whence we may observe the great courage and constancy of the Romans of old that could not only bear up against three such dangerous invasions but overcome them at last whereas afterwards their courage began to fail and they were not able to resist the inundation of those Barbarians for when the Goths and the Vandals invaded they possessed themselves of the whole Western Empire without any considerable opposition The reasons which move these Nations to transmigrate as I said before is necessity and that necessity proceeds either from famine or from wars and disturbances at home and when they undertake these Expeditions with vast and innumerable numbers they invade with irresistible violence put all the Natives to the sword possess themselves of their Estates establish a new Kingdom and change the very name of the Province as Moses did of old and the Barbarians since who possessed themselves of the Roman Empire From hence are all the new names in Italy and elsewhere imposed by their several Conquerors Lombardy was called anciently Gallia Cisalpina Francia from the Franks was called anciently Gallia trans Alpina Sclavonia was called Illyria Hungaria Pannonia Anglia Britannta Moses gave the name of Iudea to that part of Syria which he conquered and many other Countries have changed their names upon the same occasion which would be too long to recount And because I have said before that sometimes these kind of people are forc'd out of their Country by intestine troubles and disturbances I shall present you with one example of the Maurusians an ancient people of Syria who foreseeing the invasion of the Hebrews and knowing themselves unable to oppose them thought it more wisdom to forsake their Country betimes and preserve themselves than to expect their coming and lose both whereupon they pack'd up their goods and with their wives and children removed into Africk where they drove out the inhabitants and setled in their Country so that they who were too weak to defend their own Province were strong enough to force out another people To this purpose Prooopius who writes the wars of Bellisarius against the Vandals who had setled themselves in Africk tells us that upon certain pillars in the houses where these Maurusians had lived he himself read these words Nos Maurusii qui fugimus a facie Iesu latronis filii Navae We Maurisians fled hither from Iesus the Usurper who was the son of Navi By which we may perceive the occasion of their departure out of Syria And certainly these Nations forc'd out of their own Country by irresistible necessity are more than ordinarily dreadful and not to be opposed but by a potent and well disciplin'd people but when they move in small numbers their danger is not so great because they dare not use that violence but are put to their wits and to possess themselves of some quarters by cunning and insinuation which they are to keep afterwards by ways of amity and friendship as Aeneas did and Dido the Massilians and others who by the assistance and friendship of their neighbours made good what they had possessed But the people that came out of their own Countries the most numerous and strong were the Scythians for their Country being barren and cold and the natives too numerous to be sustained in it they were forced abroad as having nothing to preserve them at home And if now for five hundred years and upwards we have not heard of any such transmigration I conceive the reasons may be several the first may be the great evacuation in those Countries from whence the Roman Empire was invaded A second may be because Germany and Hungaria from whence those inundations came is better cultivated and improved so as they can live plentifully at home without rambling abroad another reason may be that the Germans Poles Cimbrians and other Nations which border upon the Scythians being martial people and continually at wars with them are as it were a Bulwark to these parts and keep the Scythians from all new invasions The Tartars likewise have been many times upon their march with very great Armies but they have been always encountred and repulsed by the Poles and Hungarians which has given them occasion frequently to boast that were it not for their arms and resistance not only Italy but the very Roman Church had been many times sensible of the barbarity of the Tartars CHAP. IX What those occasions are which do most commonly create War among Princes THe occasion of the War betwixt the Samnites and the Romans who had been a long time in league together was the common cause betwixt all Princes and Governments and was either fortuitous or designed The war betwixt the Samnites and the Romans was fortuitous for when the Samnites made war upon the Sidicins and afterwards upon the Campani they intended not any controversy with the Romans but the Campani being beaten and betaking themselves to the Romans for relief contrary to the expectation both of the Romans and Samnites the Romans being in league with the Samnites could not without violence to the said league give them protection upon which having no other way to secure themselves the Campani submitted to the Romans and made themselves their subjects and the Romans how unjust soever they thought it before to assist the Campani whilst they were but associates against the Samnites their old friends yet now they were become their subjects and had incorporated with their State the case was altred and they thought it very reasonable supposing that if they should
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
possess'd her Father and Mother did not fail to use all the remedies are usual in so deplorable a case they brought before her St. Zanobes Head and St. I. Galbert's Cloak which was nuts to Belphegor and made him nothing but laugh There was no body in her but Don Roderick de Castile who was as ingenious a Gentleman-devil as one would wish and that the world might take notice that this was no fantastick imagination nor fit of the Night-mare nor any such trifle but that she was really possessed she spake Latin better than Tully ever Writ disputed in Philosophy and discovered the secrets and sins of several people that were there who were very much surprized to find the Devil concern himself with those kind of affairs Amongst the rest there was one holy Father he did a great discourtesie to in blurting out before the whole company as if he had kept a young Lass four years together in his Cell in the habit of a young Monk and after all this let any body judge whether the profession was not like to be true Ambrosio in the mean time was in great affliction for his Daughter he had tryed all the ways that Physick or Religion could propose but to no purpose so as he was brought to the highest point of despair when Matteo came to him and undertook the cure of his Daughter if he would give him five hundred Florins which he designed to lay out in Land at Peretola In short Matteo was an honest fellow and would have done the miracle gratis and like a Gentleman but his pockets were hollow and he had great occasion for Money at that time Seignior Ambrosio accepts the conditions and Matteo falls to work he began very civilly with certain Masses and other Ceremonies that he might appear the more formal in the business at length he stole to the Ladies ear calls Roderick and tells him he was come thither to him and did require him to be as good as his word Content says Roderick and that you may see I shall deal with you like a person of quality take notice that because this expedition is not enough to inrich you and do your business I will befriend you more than once for which reason as soon as I am departed from hence away I 'le march into the Daughter of Charles the King of Naples and don 't fear but I 'le stick to her till you come to exorcise me so as there you may make up your markets at a blow and become considerable for ever but be sure after that I be troubled with you no more and as soon as he had said so whip says he out of the Lady and was gone to the great joy and astonishment of whole Town Belphegor in the mean time was as good as his word as he promised Matteo away he goes and in two or three days time it was all over Italy that the Daughter of Charles King of Naples was in the same condition which was good news for Matteo who was at this bout to gain the Philosophers-stone In short he tryed all means possible the Monks went to work with their prayers and their crosses but to no purpose The Devil would not budge till Matteo came himself who had formerly obliged him The King had news of what had happened at Florence and sends away immediately for Matteo to his Court who came accordingly and after some few ceremonious formalities counterfeited for concealment of the mystery he cures his Daughter However Roderick before his departure as is reported in the Chronicle accosted him in this manner You see Matteo I have been as good as my word you see you are become rich in a trice and may take your case for the future so as if I be not mistaken I have discharged my self as to you very honestly hereafter have a care how you come near me for as hitherto I have done you knights-service henceforward I will do you as much mischief as I can Matteo being returned to Flâ—rence very wealthy for the King of Naples had given him above five thousand Ducats he thought of nothing now but enjoying that peaceably he had got never imagining Roderick would do him any harm but his designs were much frustrated by a report out of France that Lewis the seventh's Daughter was possess'd as the former Matteo was in great trouble on the one side he was not ignorant of the power of that Prince on the other he remembred Roderick's last words the King used all means possible but without any success he was told what feats Matteo had done and dispatched a Post to him immediately to desire his Company at Paris but Matteo pretending I know not what indispositions that rendered him incapable of serving his Majesty the King was forced to write to the Magistrates who sent away Matteo immediately Being arrived at Paris he was in great affliction because he knew not which way for his life to perform what was expected from him At last he goes to the King and tells him that true it was indeed he had formerly wrought some cures in that kind but that it was not in reason to be expected he could dispossess all people he met with seeing there were some Devils so refractory and cross-grain'd neither threats nor enchantments nor devotion it self would do no good on That he said not this out of any repugnancy or unwillingness to do as he was desired but that in case his endeavours were ineffectual he might have his Majesties pardon The King was stark mad at the story and told him in plain terms if if he did not rout the Devil out of his Daughter as he had done out of others he would hang him forthwith for he saw no reason why Miracles were not as seasible at Paris as at Florence and Naples These words toucht Matteo to the quick he thought there was no pleasure to be taken in being hang'd in that manner and that what the King had said was without any equivocation However he recollected himself a little or at least pretended so and calling for the Princess that was possess'd he makes his approaches and whispering her in the ear told Roderick he was his very humble servant and put him in mind of the good office he had done him when he delivered him out of the talons of the Law adding withall that if he left him in the lurch in the extremity of danger he was then in the whole World would cry out on his ingratitude Roderick heard him with no more patience than needs must he swaggers swears storms and lays about like a Devil in good earnest gives him a thousand and a thousand ill words but they could distinguish only these few at the last How now you Rascally Traitor have you the impudence to come near me again have you forgot it was I that made you your fortune but I 'le make all the World see and you too with a pox to you that I can take away as
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
and it continued in that Agony several years under three Berengarii successively during which time the Pope and the Church were under no the less perturbation having no refuge to fly to by reason of the dissention among the Western Princes and the impotence of the Eastern The City of Genoa and all its Territory upon the Rivers were over-run by the Saraâ—ens which by the resort of multitudes driven thither out of their own Countrey was the foundation of the Grandeur of Pisa. These Accidents happen'd in the year DCCCCXXXI But Ottone Son of Enricus and Matilda and Duke of Saxony coming to the Empire and being a man of great reputation for his Conduct and Prudence Agabito the Pope addressed himself to him imploring his Assistance in Italy against the Tyranny of the Berengarii The States of Italy in those days were Govern'd in this manner Lombardy was under the Jurisdiction of Berengarius the Third and Albertus his Son Tuscany and Romania under the Dominion of a Governour deputed by the Emperour of the West Puglia and Calabria were part under the Greek Empire and part under the Saracens In Rome two Consuls were created out of the Nobility every year according to ancient Custome to which a Prefect was added to administer Justice to the people They had moreover a Counsel of Twelve who provided Governours annually for all Towns under their Jurisdiction The Pope had more or less power in Rome and in all Italy according as his favour was more or less with the Emperour or other persons which were more potent than he Ottone to gratifie his request came into Italy with an Army fought with the Berengarii drove them out of their Kingdom which they had injoy'd 55 years and restor'd the Pope to his former dignity Ottone had a Son and a Grand-Child of his own Name both which one after the other succeeded in the Empire and in the time of Ottone the Third Pope Gregory the Fifth was expelled by the Romans Ottone undertook a new Expedition into Italy in his behalf and having once again re-establish'd him in his Chair the Pope to be reveng'd of the Romans took from them the power of Creating the Emperours and conferr'd it upon six German Princes Three Bishops 〈◊〉 Treves and Colen and Three temporal Princes the Duke of Brandenburg the Prince Palatine of the Rhine and the Duke of Saxony and this happen'd in the year 1002. After the death of Ottone the Third Enrico Duke of Bavaria was created Emperour by the said Electors and was Crown'd twelve years after by Stephanus the Eighth Enricus and Simeonda his Wife were eminent for their Piety having as a Testimony of it built and endow'd several Churches and among the rest that of S. Miniato near the City of Florence In the year 1024 Enrico died was succeeded by Corrado of Suevia and he by Enrico II who coming to Rome and finding a Schism in the Church and three Popes in being at the same time he degraded them all and causing Clement II. to be elected was Crown'd Emperour by him Italy was then govern'd partly by the People partly by Princes and partly by the Emperours Ministers the chiefest of which to whom the rest did in all matters of importance refer had the Title of Chancellor Among the Princes the most powerful was Gottifredus Husband to the Countess Matilda who was Sister to Enricus II. She and her Husband had the possession of Lucca Parma Reggio and Mantua with all that Countery which is now call'd the Patrimony of the Church The Popes at that time had no small trouble upon their hands by reason of the ambition of the people of Rome who having at first made use of the Papal Authority to free themselves of the Emperours as soon as the Popes had taken upon them the Regiment of the City and reform'd things as they thought good themselves of a sudden they became their Enemies and they receiv'd more injury from the people than from any other Christian Prince whatsoever Rebelling and mutining at the same time the Popes by their Censures made the whole West to tremble nor was the design of either of them less than to subvert the Authority and Reputation of the one and the other Nicolas II. arriving at the Popedom as Gregory V. had taken from the Romans the priviledge of creating the Emperour so he depriv'd them of their concurrence to the Election of the Pope restraining it wholly to the suffrage of the Cardinals nor contented with this by agreement with the Princes which Govern'd at that time in Puglia and Calabria for reasons which shall be mentioned hereafter he forc'd all the Officers sent thither by the people to assert their Jurisdiction to pay Allegiance to the Pope and some of them he displaced After Nicholaus was dead there happen'd a great Schism in the Church The Clergy of Lombardy would not yeild obedience to Alexander II. who was chosen at Rome but created Cadalo of Parma Anti-Pope Enrico detesting the extravagant dominion of the Popes sent to Alexander to resign and to the Cardinals that they should repair into Germany in order to a new Election so that he was the first Prince which was made sensible of the effects of their Spiritual Fulminations for the Pope calling together a new Council at Rome depriv'd him both of his Empire and Kingdom Some of the Italians following the Pope's and some of them the Emperours party was the foundation of that famous Faction betwixt the Guelfs and Ghibilins in so much that for want of forreign inundations by the Barbarians they turn'd their Arms upon themselves and tore out their own Bowels Enrico being Excommunicated was forc'd by his own Subjects to come into Italy where bare-footed and upon his knees he begg'd his Pardon of the Pope in the year MLXXX Notwithstanding all this not long after there happen'd a new quarrel betwixt Enrico and the Pope whereupon provok'd by a new Excommunication he sent his Son Enrico with an Army who by the Assistance of the Romans whose hatred the Pope had contracted besieg'd him in his Castle but Roberto Guiscardo coming from Puglia to his relief Enrico had not the courage to attend him but rais'd his Siege and retir'd into Germany However the Romans continued obstinate and Robert was forc'd to sack the Town and reduce it to its ancient Ruines from whence by several Popes it had been lately restor'd And because from this Roberto the Model of Government in the Kingdom of Naples did proceed it will not in my judgment be superfluous to give a particular Narrative both of his Countrey and Exploits Upon the differences betwixt Charlemain's Heirs as is said before a new Northern people call'd Normans took occasion to invade France and possess'd themselves of that part of it which is now call'd Normandy Of this people part went into Italy in the time when it was infested by the Berengarii the Saracens and Hunns setling
in Romania and performing very valiantly in all those Wars Of Tancred one of the Princes of those Normans were born several Sons among which William call'd Ferabar and Roberto call'd Guiscardo were two William arriv'd to be Prince and the Tumults in Italy were in some measure compos'd But the Saracens having Sicily intire and daily invasions made upon Italy William entred into Confederacy with the Princes of Capua and Salerno and with Milorcus a Grecian who by the Emperour of Greece was deputed Governour of Puglia and Calabria to invade Sicily and in case of Victory it was agreed among them that both Prey and Countrey should be equaly divided The Enterprize was prosperous they beat the Saracens drove them out of the Countrey and possess'd it when they had done But Milorcus causing more Forces to be transported privately out of Greece seiz'd the Island for the Emperour and divided only the Spoil William was not a little disgusted but reserving his indignation for a more Convenient time he departed out of Sicily with the Princes of Capua and Salerno who having taken their leaves of him to return to their Homes in stead of marching to Romania as he pretended to them he fac'd about with his Army towards Puglia surpriz'd Melfi and behav'd himself so well against the Forces of the Emperour that he made himself Master of most part of Puglia and Calabria which Provinces at the time of Nicolas II. were Govern'd by his Brother Roberto and because he had afterward great Contention with his Nephews about the inheritance of those States he made use of the Pope's mediation who readily comply'd being desirous to oblige Roberto that he might defend him against the German Emperour and the people of Rome and it afterwards happen'd as we have said before that at the instance of Gregory VII he forc'd Enrico from Rome and suppress'd the Sedition of the Inhabitants Robert was succeeded by two of his Sons Roger and William to their Inheritance they annexed the City of Naples and all the Countrey betwixt it and Rome besides that they subdu'd Sicily of which Roger was made Lord. But William going afterwards to Constantinople to marry that Emperour's Daughter Roger took advantage of his absence seiz'd upon his Contrey and elated by so great an acquest caus'd himself first to be call'd King of Italy but afterwards contenting himself with the Title of King of Puglia and Sicily he was the first that gave Name and Laws to that Kingdom which to this day it retains though many times since not only the Royal Bloud but the Nation has been changed for upon failure of the Norman Race that Kingdom devolv'd to the Germans from them to the French from the French to the Spaniards and from the Spaniards to the Flemens with whom it remains at this present Urban II. though very odious in Rome was gotten to be Pope but by reason of the dissentions there not thinking himself secure in Italy he remov'd with his whole Clergy into France Having assembled many people together at Anvers he undertook a Generous Enterprize and by a learned Oration against the Infidels kindled such a fire in their minds they resolv'd upon an Expedition into Asia against the Saracens which Expedition as all other of the same nature was call'd afterwards Crociate because all that went along in it carry'd a red Cross upon their Arms and their Cloths The Chief Commanders in this Enterprize were Gottofredi Eustachio Alduino di Buglione Earl of Bologna and Peter the Hermit a man of singular veneration both for his prudence and piety Many Princes and Nations assisted with their Purses and many private men serv'd as Voluntiers at their own Charges So great an influence had Religion in those days upon the Spirits of Men incourag'd by the Example of their several Commanders At first the Enterprize was very successfull all Asia minor Syria and part of Egypt fell under the power of the Christians during which War the Order of the Knights of Ierusalem was instituted and continued a long time in Rhodes as a Bulwark against the Turks Not long after the Order of the Knights Templers was founded but it lasted not long by reason of the dissoluteness of their Manners At sundry times after these things upon sundry occasions many accidents fell out in which several Nations and particular men signaliz'd themselves There were ingag'd in this Expedition the Kings of England and France the States of Pisa Venice and Genoa all behaving themselves with great bravery and sighting with variety of Fortune till the time of Saladine the Saracen but his Courage and Virtue improv'd by intestine differences among the Christians robb'd them of the glory they had gain'd at the first and chased them out of a Countrey where for Ninety years they had been so honourably and so happily plac'd After the death of Pope Urban Pascal II. was chosen to succeed him and Enrico IV. made Emperour who coming to Rome and pretending great friendship to the Pope took his advantage clapt both him and his Clergy in Prison and never discharg'd them till they had impowr'd him to dispose of the Churches in Germany as he pleas'd himself About this time Matilda the Countess died and gave her Patrimony to the Church After the deaths of Pascal and Enric many Popes and many Emperours succeeded till the Papacy fell to Alexander III. and the Empire to Frederick Barbarossa a Swede The Popes of those days had many Controversies with the people of Rome and the Emperours which till the time of Barbarossa rather increas'd than otherwise Frederick was an excellent Soldier but so haughty and high he could not brook to give place to the Pope Notwithstanding he came to Rome to be Crown'd and return'd peaceably into Germany But that humour lasted but little for he return'd shortly into Italy to reduce some Towns in Lombardy which denied him obedience In this juncture Cardinal di S. Clemente a Roman born dividing from Pope Alexander was made Pope himself by a Faction in the Conclave Frederick the Emperour being then incamp'd before Crema Alexander complain'd to him of the Anti-Pope Frederick reply'd That they should both of them appear personally before him and that then hearing faithfully what each of them could say he should be better able to determine which was in the right Alexander was not at all satisfied with the Answer but perceiving the Emperour inclining to the Adversary he Excommunicated him and ran away to King Philip of France For all that Frederick prosecuted his Wars in Lombardy took and dismantled Milan Which put the Cities of Verona Padua and Venice upon a Confederacy for their Common defence In the mean time the Anti-Pope died and Frederick presum'd to Create Guidâ— of Cremona in his place The Romans taking advantage of the Pope's absence and the Emperour's diversion in Lombardy had re-assum'd something of their former Authority and began to require Obedience in the
his design to Eight of his principal intimates amongst whom Don Michael and Monsignor d' Euna were two and appointed that when Vitellozzo Pagolo Ursini the Duke de Gravina and Oliverotto should come to meet him two of his Favourites should be sure to order it so as to get one of the Ursini betwixt them assigning every couple his man and entertain them till they came to Sinigaglia with express injunction not to part with them upon any terms till they were brought to the Dukes Lodgings and taken into Custody After this he ordered his whole Army Horse and Foot which consisted of 2000 of the first and 10000 of the latter to be ready drawn up upon the banks of the Metauro about five miles distant from Fano and to expect his arrival Being come up to them upon the Metauro he commanded out two hundred Horse as a Forlorn and then causing the Foot to march he brought up the Reer himself with the remainder Fano and Sinigaglia are two Cities in la Marca seated upon the bank of the Adriatick Sea distant one from the other about 15 miles so that travelling up towards Sinigaglia the bottom of the Mountains on the right hand are so near the Sea they are almost wash'd by the water at the greatest distance they are not above two miles The City of Sinigaglia from these Mountains is not above a flight shot and the Tide comes up within less than a Mile By the side of this Town there is a little River which runs close by the wall next Fano and is in sight of the Road So that he who comes to Sinigaglia passes a long way under the Mountains and being come to the River which runs by Sinigaglia turns on the left hand upon the bank which within a bow shot brings him to a Bridge over the said River almost right against the Gate before the Gate there is a little Bourg with a Market-place one side of which is shouldred up by the bank of the River The Vitelli and Ursini having concluded to attend the Duke themselves and to pay their personal respects to make room for his Men had drawn off their own and disposed them into certain Castles at the distance of six miles only they had left in Sinigaglia Oliveretto with a party of about 1000 Foot and 150 Horse which were quartered in the said Bourg Things being in this order Duke Valentine approached but when his Horse in the Van came up to the Bridge they did not pass but opening to the right and left and wheeling away they made room for the Foot who marched immediately into the Town Vitellozzo Pagolo and the Duke de Gravina advanced upon their Mules to wait upon Duke Valentine Vitellozzo was unarm'd in a Cap lin'd with green very sad and melancholy as if he had had some foresight of his destiny which considering his former courage and exploits was admired by every body And it is said that when he came from his house in order to meeting Duke Valentine at Sinigaglia he took his last leave very solemnly of every body He recommended his Family and its fortunes to the chief of his Officers and admonished his Grand-children not so much to commemorate the fortune as the magnanimity of their Ancestors These three Princes being arrived in the presence of Duke Valentine saluted him with great civility and were as civilly received and each of them as soon as they were well observed by the persons appointed to secure them were singled and disposed betwixt two of them But the Duke perceiving that Oliveretto was wanting who was left behind with his Regiment and had drawn it up in the Market-place for the greater formality he wink'd upon Don Michael to whom the care of Oliveretto was assign'd that he should be sure to provide he might not escape Upon this intimation Don Michael clap'd spurs to his Horse and rid before and being come up to Oliveretto he told him it was inconvenient to keep his Men to their Arms for unless they were sent presently to their quarters they would be taken up for the Dukes wherefore he persuaded him to dismiss them and go with him to the Duke Oliveretto following his Counsel went along with him to the Duke who no sooner saw him but he call'd him to him and Oliveretto having paid his Ceremony fell in with the rest Being come into the Town and come up to the Duke's Quarters they all dismounted and attended him up where being carried by him into a private Chamber they were instantly Arrested and made Prisoners The Duke immediately mounted and commanded their Soldiers should be all of them disarmed Oliveretto's Regiment being so near at hand were plundered into the bargain The Brigades which belong'd to Vitelli and Ursini being at greater distance and having notice of what had hapned to their Generals had time to unite and remembring the Discipline and Courage of their Masters they kept close together and marched away in spight both of the Country people and their Enemies But Duke Valentine's Soldiers not content with the pillage of Oliveretto's Soldiers fell foul upon the Town and had not the Duke by the death of several of them repressed their insolence Sinigaglia had been ruined The night coming on and the tumults appeased the Duke began to think of his Prisoners resolved Vitellozzo and Oliveretto should die and having caused them to be guarded into a convenient place he commanded they should be strangled but they said nothing at their deaths that was answerable to their lives for Vitellozzo begged only that the Pope might be supplicated in his behalf for a plenary indulgence Oliveretto impeached Vitellozzo and lay'd all upon his back Pagolo and the Duke de Gravina were continued alive till the Duke had information that his Holiness at Rome had seized upon the Cardinal Orsino the Arch-bishop of Florence and Messer Iacopo da Santa Croce upon which News on the 18th of Ianuary they also were both strangled in the Castle of Piene after the same manner THE STATE OF FRANCE IN An Abridgment written by Nicolo Machiavelli Secretary of FLORENCE THE Kings and Kingdom of France are at this time more rich and more powerful than ever and for these following Reasons First The Crown passing by succession of Blood is become rich because in case where the King has no Sons to succeed him in his paternal Estate it falls all to the Crown and this having many times hapned has been a great corroboration as particularly in the Dutchy of Anjou and at present the same is like to fall out to this King who having no Sons the Dutchy of Orleans and State of Milan his hereditary Countries are like to devolve upon the Crown So that at this day most of the good Towns in France are in the Crown and few remaining to particular persons A second great Reason of the strength of that King is That whereas heretofore France was not entire but subject to