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Unit 5: Niccolo Machiavelli

On returning home, Machiavelli got engrossed with personal matters. During his stay abroad, his Notes
sister and father died. He married in 1501. In 1502, he was entrusted with another diplomatic
assignment, and the experiences during these four months formed the core of the Prince and the
Discourses. Machiavelli became all the more convinced that a state needed a morality of its own,
namely that of success, which he identified as the protection and well-being of the people, and
defence and extension of state borders. In 1503, Machiavelli went to Rome to make a report on a
crisis in the papal court and assess the new Pope, Julius II.
In 1512, the Republic of Florence collapsed. Machiavelli’s career suffered, for he was dismissed
from his position on November 7, 1512. Three days later, he was ordered to be confined for one
year. In 1513, he was tortured and imprisoned, but subsequently granted amnesty with the
ascendancy of the new rulers, the Medici family. As a token of gratitude, he dedicated the Prince
to the Medici family, Lorenzo II de’Medici (1492–1519), Lorenzo the Magnificient’s grandson.
After his release, Machiavelli spent his time, one of enforced leisure, reflecting on the lessons from
his diplomatic experiences, reading history and understanding statecraft, all of which were
incorporated in his writings. Machiavelli read non-philosophical texts extensively: those of
Frontininus, Titus Livius Livy (59 BC–17 AD), Plutarch (46–120), Polybius (203–120 BC), Cornelius
Tacitus (55–117), Flavius Vegetius (450–383 BC), and Xenophon (430–354 BC).

Why did Machiavelli go to Rome in 1503?

The Prince explored the causes of the rise and fall of states and the factors for political success. The
tract was not officially published until 1532. Its success was immediate, running into 25 editions
after Machiavelli’s death. More creative pursuits followed, and a play, Mandragola, regarded as
one of the best comedies of its time, explored the ideas of immorality, intrigue, duplicity, stratagems
and the relationship between ends and means. In 1520, Machiavelli was commissioned by the
University of Florence to write a chronicle and the annals of Florence, which was published as the
History of Florence in 1525. He got a paid job after being without one for a long time. Machiavelli
also authored the Belfagor and The Art of War (1521).
In the History of Florence, Machiavelli analyzed and attributed the endemic social conflict and violence
in the city state of Florence to a natural class war between the people and the ruling nobility. The cause
for instability was the hatred that the poor harboured towards the rich. Interestingly, this was also the
reason for civic republicanism. The workers realized the need to protect themselves from government
repression and act decisively to secure a better life. This was possible only with the overthrow of the
nobility. Marx praised the tract as a masterpiece for its suggestion of a struggle between the haves and
have-nots, and that human happiness lay in aligning with the side of the deprived.
Machiavelli would be remembered in history as a diplomat, scholar and a dramatist. In his personal
life he was an affectionate person, disloyal husband, a loving father, an eloquent, conversationalist,
a generous and trustworthy friend with a great sense of humour. He could laugh at himself as
easily as he did at the expense of others. He died on June 22, 1527. The following was the inscription
on his tombstone: “No epitaph can match so great a name.”
5.2 Renaissance and its Impact

Laski (1936: 31) rightly observes that “The whole of the Renaissance is in Machiavelli. There is its
lust for power, its admiration for success, its carelessness of means, its rejection of medieval
bonds, its frank paganism, its conviction of national unity makes for national strength. Neither his
cynicism nor his praise of craftiness is sufficient to conceal the idealist in him”.

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