THERE is more than a little irony to Machiavelli’s opening remark in this section and one can almost compare it to a fox who decides to start handing out survival tips to a group of chickens:

Nothing makes a prince so famous as great achievements and setting a fine example.

His use of the word ‘fine’ is extremely subjective, of course, because what Machiavelli considers admirable usually comes down to practicality and not good conduct. The Italian’s first example is that of Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516), King of Spain, who is said to be a great and extraordinary man as a result of his early seizure of Granada and ability to use the campaign to distract the barons of Castille whilst simultaneously consolidating his own rise to power. Machiavelli also admires Fredinand’s (pictured) opportunistic use of Christianity as a means of driving the Moors from his kingdom and invading Africa, France and even Italy.

The best leaders, he says, are those who make a firm decision in times of crisis. Particularly when one’s closest neighbours begin rattling their sabres at one another:

A prince is also respected when he is either a true friend or an absolute enemy, that is to say, when, without any reservation, he declares himself in favour of one party against the other. This course will always be more advantageous than standing neutral. If two of your powerful neighbours come to blows, you have either to fear the winner or not. In either case it will always be more advantageous for you to support one of them and to actively make war. If you do not declare yourself, you will invariably be attacked by the conqueror, to the pleasure and satisfaction of the loser, and you will have no reasons to offer, nor anything to protect or to shelter you. The conqueror does not want doubtful friends who will not aid him in the time of difficulty, and the loser will not protect you because you did not willingly, sword in hand, follow his fate.

Using the example of Antiochus III the Great (241-187 BCE), who was asked by the Aetolian League to force the Romans out of their territory, Machiavelli explains how Antiochus asked the neighbouring Achaens to remain neutral, but the Romans wanted them to help them in their campaign against the Aetolian League and warned them that remaining neutral could lead to them becoming the ‘prize’ of the conqueror. As Machiavelli explains, however:

Thus it will always happen that the one who is not your friend will demand your neutrality, while the one who is your friend will beg you to declare yourself with arms. Weak princes, to avoid present dangers, generally follow the neutral path, and are generally ruined. But when a prince declares himself courageously in favour of one side, if the party with whom he joins himself conquers, although the conqueror may be powerful and may have him at his mercy, yet he is indebted to him, and a bond of friendship is established. Men are never so low as to become a symbol of ungratefulness by oppressing you. Victories after all are never so complete that the winner must not show some regard, especially to justice. But if the one you support loses, you may be sheltered by him, and while he is able he may aid you, and you can become companions on a fortune that may rise again.

Machiavelli believes it is foolish for any leader to assume that he can assure the safety of his own principality by choosing one course over another. It is important, he says, to choose the lesser of two evils and even then to remain on one’s guard at all times. This should not, on the other hand, prevent the prince from giving his subjects the impression that everything is progressing in a satisfactory manner. This, he tells us, can also be facilitated by providing entertainment for the people. It was the Romans, of course, who had already seen the value behind Panem et Circensus, or “bread and circuses”.

Frederick finds both good and bad in this section. With regard to Machiavelli’s admiration for Ferdinand II on account of him having used the Church for his own ends, Frederick remarks that the Spanish monarch

found his religion useful, like a veil, to cover his intentions. He misused the faith of the sermons; he spoke only about justice, and made only injustices. This is what Machiavel praises him for.

The latest contradiction that Frederick unearths in the pages of Il Principe concerns Machiavelli’s assertion that a prince should remain true to his friends. In section XVIII, for example, he was advocating the use of wholesale deception. However, Frederick does administer praise where praise is due:

If Machiavel reasons badly on all that we have just said, he speaks well of the caution which the prince must have when dealing with other princes who are more powerful, who, instead of helping him, could be his destroyer.

Similarly, Frederick also agrees with Machiavelli’s handling of neutrality, explaining that experience in such matters has demonstrated

for a long time that a neutral prince exposes his country to the insults of the two warring factions, that his States become the theatre of the war, and that he always loses by neutrality, without ever having anything solid to gain there.

Greatness, he contends, is earned by a combination of conquest and good government. Meanwhile, contrary to Machiavelli’s obsession with power, Frederick outlines at some length that the truly important factors in the pursuit of life and happiness must include the proliferation of trade, learning, philosophy and the arts, things that any prince worthy of the name must seek to encourage:

These manners of making a State thrive, are like the entrusted talents. The wisdom of the sovereign must be to put them forward, not push them backward. The surest mark that a country is under a wise and happy government, is when beautiful arts are born in its centre; in fact, flowers bloom in a fatty ground and under a happy sky: the dryness, or the breath of the north winds, makes them die.

He cites the rule of Pericles (494-429 BCE), Augustus (63-14 BCE) and Louis XIV (1638-1715) as periods in which literature and the arts flourished.

TO BE CONTINUED…