After the death of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), the Roman Catholic Church swiftly banned his books. Leading philosophers condemned the Italian writer as amoral and rushed to discredit his theories about politics and government. Even in the twentieth century, one American commentator called him “one of the most wicked men who ever lived.”
Machiavelli, a diplomat and bureaucrat, incurred the wrath of critics over the centuries by writing The Prince, one of history’s most controversial treatises on political philosophy. The book, which was based on the author’s own experience in the government of the city-state of Florence, offers a cynical, ruthless guide to governing that is still studied for its insights into human nature and political power.
During Machiavelli’s childhood, Florence was under the control of the Medici family, famous for its patronage of the arts and hard-nosed approach to politics. Machiavelli was born into a middle-class family and promoted to the position of second chancellor in 1498, after the Medici had been toppled earlier in the 1490s. He spent fourteen years in politics, often serving as an envoy to the surrounding Italian city-states, until the Medici returned to power in 1512.
The return of the Medici was a turning point in Machiavelli’s life. Deposed from power, Machiavelli found himself impoverished and unable to return to government. He wrote The Prince, which was dedicated to Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici (1492–1519), in an effort to convince the city’s new rulers to take him back.
The Prince was controversial in nearly every respect. For centuries, political philosophers had insisted that leaders needed to be virtuous in order to be effective. Machiavelli argued just the opposite: A good prince should be willing to rule by deception, violence, and fear, if necessary. Most contemporaries believed princes and monarchs should be good Christians; Machiavelli said it was only important to pretend to be a good Christian. The ends—maintaining the security and independence of the state—justified even the most evil means.
For Machiavelli, however, The Prince never achieved its purpose: Barred from returning to government, he lived the rest of his life in poverty on his farm, writing plays, poems, essays, and a history of the city of Florence. He died at age fifty-eight.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- Machiavelli was a friend of the painter Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and at one point even worked in the same building with him. The two men helped devise a military strategy to divert the river Arno in order to cut off the water supply to Pisa, a nearby city-state that was one of Florence’s enemies. Florentine authorities actually tried the plan in 1503, but canceled the project after flooding damaged their own farmland.
- The word Machiavellian is commonly used to describe cunning or deceptive political actions.
- One of the models for Machiavelli’s ideal prince was Cesare Borgia (c. 1475–1507), whom he met in 1502 while on a diplomatic mission. Borgia, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI (1431–1503), was a military schemer known for his ruthlessness in battle.
