Floods upon Machiavelli’s ‘princes’

Niccold Machiavelli was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance.

- AMELIA H.C. YLAGAN

He is best known for his political treatise, The Prince (Il Principe), published in 1532, for which he has often been called the “father of modern political philosophy and political science” by modern-day political thinkers.

Such an honorific was earned by this self-made political philosopher who strategized his own survival and positioning in the shifting politics of his time. Historian Maurizio Viroli, in his biography of Machiavelli, relates that Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era. As a secretary (historian) in the court, Machiavelli witnessed firsthand the state-building methods of Pope Alexander VI (head of the Catholic Church, ruler of the Papal States, and leader of the Holy League with European rulers) and his son, Cesare Borgia. Note that Rodrigo Borgia was appointed cardinal when he was barely in his twenties by his uncle, Pope Callixtus III, and he rose to the papacy after the death of Pope Innocent VIII as the most senior, most powerful cardinal, aligned with the emperors of Europe at that time. As Pope Alexander VI, he made his son, Cesare, cardinal and supreme military commander of papal forces that conquered opposing regimes. These nepotistic appointments by dynastic rulers were characteristic of the era.

Machiavelli personally witnessed the brutal retribution Cesare Borgia inflicted on his rebellious commanders and emphasized “the danger of offending a ruler and then expecting to trust him afterward.” Rodrigo and Cesare Borgia may have set the prototype for Machiavelli’s The Prince — of “political leaders by birth and destiny” who ruled by “the end justifying the means” on subjects who were cowed into submission by fear more than love and allegiance.