XXVI. An Exhortation to Seize Italy and Free Her from the Barbarians
Having considered, then, all the things discussed above, and thinking to myself whether the present times in Italy are right for honoring a new prince, and whether there is matter here that would give a prudent and able man the opportunity to introduce a form that would bring honor to him and good to the whole body of her people, it seems to me that so many things are coming together for the benefit of a new prince that I do not know of any time that was ever more fit for it. And if, as I said, it was necessary for the people of Israel to be enslaved in Egypt in order to see the ability of Moses, and for the Persians to be oppressed by the Medes in order to know the greatness of spirit of Cyrus, and for the Athenians to be scattered to know the excellence of Theseus, so at present, in order to know the ability of an Italian spirit, it was necessary for Italy to be reduced to the condition she is in now: more enslaved than the Hebrews, more servile than the Persians, more scattered than the Athenians, without a head, without order, beaten, despoiled, torn, overrun, having endured every kind of ruin. And although up to now some glimmer has shown itself in someone, which might make one judge that he had been ordained by God for her redemption, still it has been seen afterward how, at the highest point of his career, he was rejected by fortune.1 So that Italy, left as if lifeless, waits for the one who may heal her wounds and put an end to the sacking of Lombardy, to the extortions in the Kingdom and in Tuscany, and cure her of those sores of hers that have long since festered. One sees how she prays God to send someone to redeem her from these barbarous cruelties and insults. One sees, too, that she is ready and willing to follow a banner, if only there is someone to raise it. Nor can one see at present anyone in whom she can place more hope than in your illustrious house, which, with its fortune and ability, favored by God and by the Church, of which it is now the head,2 can make itself the leader of this redemption. This will not be very difficult if you keep before you the actions and lives of the men I have named. And although those men were rare and marvelous, they were nevertheless men, and each of them had less opportunity than the present one; for their enterprise was not more just than this one, nor easier, nor was God more their friend than yours. Here there is great justice: “for a war is just to those for whom it is necessary, and arms are holy when there is no hope but in arms.”3 Here there is the greatest readiness; and where there is great readiness there cannot be great difficulty, provided your house adopts the methods of those I have put forward as models. Besides this, here we see extraordinary things without precedent, brought about by God: the sea has opened; a cloud has shown you the way; the rock has poured out water; here manna has rained down; everything has come together for your greatness. The rest you must do yourself. God does not want to do everything, so as not to take away our free will and the part of the glory that belongs to us.
And it is no wonder that none of the Italians I have named has been able to do what one may hope your illustrious house will do, or that in so many revolutions in Italy and so many campaigns of war it always seems that military ability in her is extinct. This comes from the fact that her old institutions were not good, and there has been no one who knew how to find new ones; and nothing brings so much honor to a man newly risen as the new laws and the new institutions he has devised. These things, when they are well founded and have greatness in them, make him revered and admired; and in Italy there is no lack of matter on which to impress any form. Here there is great ability in the limbs, if only it were not lacking in the heads. Look at the duels and the combats of a few, how superior the Italians are in strength, in dexterity, in ingenuity. But when it comes to armies, they do not measure up. And all of this comes from the weakness of the leaders; because those who know are not obeyed, and everyone thinks he knows, since up to now there has been no one who has known how to rise so far above the rest, by ability and by fortune, that the others yield to him. Hence, in so much time, in so many wars fought in the past twenty years, whenever there has been an army entirely Italian, it has always performed badly. Witness first the Taro, then Alessandria, Capua, Genoa, Vailà, Bologna, Mestre.4
If your illustrious house, then, wants to follow those excellent men who redeemed their countries, it is necessary before all else, as the true foundation of every enterprise, to provide yourself with your own arms; because you cannot have more faithful, truer, or better soldiers. And although each of them is good, all together they will become better when they see themselves commanded by their own prince, and honored and maintained by him. It is necessary, therefore, to prepare these arms, so as to be able to defend yourself against foreigners with Italian ability. And although the Swiss and Spanish infantry are thought to be terrifying, nevertheless there is a defect in both, by which a third kind of formation could not only oppose them but be confident of overcoming them. For the Spaniards cannot stand up to cavalry, and the Swiss have to be afraid of infantry when they meet it in combat as stubborn as themselves. Hence it has been seen and will be seen by experience that the Spaniards cannot withstand French cavalry, and the Swiss are ruined by Spanish infantry. And although this last has not been fully proved by experience, still a sample of it was seen at the battle of Ravenna, when the Spanish infantry met the German battalions, which follow the same order as the Swiss. There the Spaniards, with the agility of their bodies and the help of their bucklers, had got in under the Germans’ pikes and could strike at them in safety without the Germans having any remedy; and if the cavalry had not charged the Spaniards, they would have destroyed the Germans to a man. One can, therefore, knowing the defect of both these infantries, organize a new one that can resist cavalry and not be afraid of infantry. This will be done by the kind of arms and a change in the formation. And these are among the things which, newly organized, give reputation and greatness to a new prince.
This opportunity, then, must not be allowed to pass, so that Italy, after so long a time, may see her redeemer. Nor can I express with what love he would be received in all those provinces that have suffered from these foreign floods, with what thirst for revenge, with what obstinate faith, with what devotion, with what tears. What doors would be closed to him? What peoples would deny him obedience? What envy would oppose him? What Italian would deny him homage? This barbarian dominion stinks in everyone’s nostrils. Let your illustrious house, then, take up this charge with the spirit and the hope with which just enterprises are taken up, so that under its banner this country may be ennobled, and under its auspices those words of Petrarch may come true:
Virtue against fury
will take up arms, and the fight will be short;
for the ancient valor
in Italian hearts is not yet dead.5
Notes
1. Usually taken to mean Cesare Borgia.
2. The Medici pope Leo X.
3. Livy 9.1, words of the Samnite leader Gaius Pontius: iustum enim est bellum quibus necessarium, et pia arma quibus nulla nisi in armis relinquitur spes.
4. Italian defeats from 1495 to 1513: the Taro (Fornovo, 1495), Alessandria (1499), Capua (1501), Genoa (1507), Vailà (1509), Bologna (1511), Mestre (1513).
5. Petrarch, Italia mia, Canzoniere 128, lines 93–96: Vertù contra furore / prenderà l’arme, et fia ’l combatter corto: / ché l’antiquo valore / ne gli italici cor’ non è anchor morto.