XXI. What a Prince Should Do to Be Held in Esteem
Nothing makes a prince so esteemed as great enterprises and giving rare examples of himself. In our own times we have Ferdinand of Aragon, the present king of Spain. He can be called almost a new prince, because from a weak king he has become, in fame and glory, the first king of Christendom; and if you consider his actions, you will find them all very great and some of them extraordinary. At the beginning of his reign he attacked Granada, and that enterprise was the foundation of his state.1 First, he undertook it when he had nothing else to do and without fear of being hindered. He kept the minds of the barons of Castile occupied with it, so that, thinking about that war, they did not think about making trouble; and meanwhile he was acquiring reputation and power over them without their noticing. With the money of the Church and of the people he was able to maintain armies, and by that long war to lay a foundation for his own military, which has since brought him honor. Besides this, so as to be able to undertake greater enterprises, always making use of religion, he turned to a pious cruelty, driving the Marranos out of his kingdom and despoiling them;2 nor could there be a more pitiful or a rarer example than this. Under this same cloak he attacked Africa; he undertook the enterprise of Italy; he has lately attacked France.3 And so he has always done and planned great things, which have always kept the minds of his subjects in suspense and wonder and occupied with their outcome. And these actions of his have arisen one out of another in such a way that between one and the next he has never given men room to work quietly against him.
It also helps a prince greatly to give rare examples of himself in internal government, like those told of Bernabò of Milan,4 when the occasion arises of someone doing something extraordinary in civil life, for good or for ill, and to find a way of rewarding or punishing him that will be much talked about. And above all a prince must contrive in every action to give himself the fame of a great and excellent man.
A prince is also esteemed when he is a true friend and a true enemy, that is, when he declares himself without any reservation in favor of one party against another. This course will always be more useful than remaining neutral. For if two powerful neighbors of yours come to blows, either they are such that, if one of them wins, you have to fear the victor, or they are not. In either of these two cases it will always be more useful to you to declare yourself and wage war in earnest. For in the first case, if you do not declare yourself, you will always be the prey of the winner, to the pleasure and satisfaction of the one who has been beaten, and you will have no reason and nothing to defend you or to give you shelter. For whoever wins does not want suspect friends who do not help him in adversity; and whoever loses does not shelter you, since you were unwilling to share his fortune with arms in hand.
Antiochus had come into Greece, brought there by the Aetolians to drive out the Romans. He sent ambassadors to the Achaeans, who were friends of the Romans, to urge them to stay neutral, while on the other side the Romans were urging them to take up arms on their behalf. The matter came up for deliberation in the council of the Achaeans, where the envoy of Antiochus urged them to stay neutral; to which the Roman envoy replied: “As for what they tell you, that you should not take part in the war, nothing could be more contrary to your interests: without thanks, without dignity, you will be the prize of the victor.”5
And it will always happen that the one who is not your friend will ask you to be neutral, and the one who is your friend will ask you to declare yourself with arms. And irresolute princes, to escape present dangers, most often follow the neutral path, and most often they are ruined. But when the prince declares himself boldly in favor of one side, if the one you join wins, even though he is powerful and you remain at his discretion, he is obliged to you and a bond of affection has been formed; and men are never so dishonest as to crush you with such an example of ingratitude. Besides, victories are never so clean that the victor does not have to show some respect, especially for justice. But if the one you join loses, you are sheltered by him; he helps you while he can, and you become the companion of a fortune that may rise again. In the second case, when those who are fighting are such that you have nothing to fear, it is all the more prudent to join one of them; for you bring about the ruin of one with the help of the other, who would save him if he were wise; and if he wins, he remains at your discretion; and with your help it is impossible that he should not win.
And here it should be noted that a prince must take care never to make common cause with someone more powerful than himself in order to attack others, unless necessity compels him, as was said above; because if you win, you remain his prisoner, and princes must avoid, as far as they can, being at the discretion of others. The Venetians allied themselves with France against the Duke of Milan, and could have avoided making that alliance; and their ruin resulted from it. But when it cannot be avoided, as happened to the Florentines when the pope and Spain went with their armies to attack Lombardy,6 then the prince must join in, for the reasons given above. Nor should any state ever believe that it can always choose safe courses; on the contrary, it should expect to have to take only doubtful ones. For it is found in the order of things that one never tries to escape one disadvantage without running into another; but prudence consists in knowing how to recognize the qualities of the disadvantages, and in taking the least bad as good.
A prince must also show himself a lover of ability, and honor those who excel in an art. Next, he must encourage his citizens to be able to pursue their occupations in peace, in trade, in agriculture, and in every other human occupation, so that one man is not afraid to improve his possessions for fear they will be taken from him, and another is not afraid to open a business for fear of taxes. He should instead offer rewards to whoever wants to do these things, and to whoever thinks of enlarging his city or his state in any way. Besides this, at suitable times of the year he should keep the people occupied with festivals and spectacles. And because every city is divided into guilds or wards, he should take account of these bodies, meet with them sometimes, and give an example of humanity and munificence, while always keeping firm the majesty of his dignity, because this must never be lacking in anything.
Notes
1. Ferdinand and Isabella waged war on the Moorish kingdom of Granada from 1482 until its fall in 1492.
2. Marranos: converted Jews and Moors, many suspected of practicing their old faith in secret. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and the Moors of Castile were forced to convert or leave in 1502.
3. Spanish expeditions took ports in North Africa from 1505 to 1511; Ferdinand fought for Naples from 1501 and joined the Holy League against France in 1511–12.
4. Bernabò Visconti (1323–1385), lord of Milan, famous for his extravagant rewards and punishments.
5. Livy 35.49: Quod autem isti dicunt non interponendi vos bello, nihil magis alienum rebus vestris est; sine gratia, sine dignitate, praemium victoris eritis. The words were spoken by Titus Quinctius Flamininus in 192 BC.
6. In 1512, when the Holy League attacked the French in Lombardy, Florence stayed neutral; the Spanish army then sacked Prato and restored the Medici in Florence.