21
How
a Prince Must Act in Order to Gain Reputation
Nothing causes a prince to be so much esteemed as great
enterprises and giving proof of prowess. We have in our own day Ferdinand,
King of Aragon, the present King of Spain. He may almost be termed a new
prince, because from a weak king he has become for fame and glory the
first king in Christendom, and if you regard his actions you will find
them all very great and some of them extraordinary. At the very beginning
of his reign he assailed Granada, and that enterprise was the foundation
of his state. At first he did it at his leisure and without fear of being
interfered with; he kept the minds of the barons of Castile occupied in
this enterprise, so that thinking only of that war they did not think of
making innovations, and he thus acquired reputation and power over them
without their being aware of it. He was able with the money of the Church
and the people to maintain his armies, and by that long war to lay the
foundations of his military power, which afterwards has made him famous.
Besides this, to be able to undertake greater enterprises, and always
under the pretext of religion, he had recourse to a pious cruelty, driving
out the Moors from his kingdom and despoiling them. No more miserable or
unusual example can be found. He also attacked Africa under the same
pretext, undertook his Italian enterprise, and has lately attacked France;
so that he has continually contrived great things, which have kept his
subjects’ minds uncertain and astonished, and occupied in watching their
results. And these actions have arisen one out of the other, so that they
have left no time for men to settle down and act against him.
It
is also very profitable for a prince to give some outstanding example of
his greatness in the internal administration, like those related of Messer
Bernabo of Milan. When it happens that some one does something
extraordinary, either good or evil, in civil life, he must find such means
of rewarding or punishing him which will be much talked about. And above
all a prince must endeavour in every action to obtain fame for being great
and excellent.
A
prince is further esteemed when he is a true friend or a true enemy, when,
that is, he declares himself without reserve in favour of some one or
against another. This policy is always more useful than remaining neutral.
For if two neighbouring powers come to blows, they are either such that if
one wins, you will have to fear the victor, or else not. In either of
these two cases it will be better for you to declare yourself openly and
make war, because in the first case if you do not declare yourself, you
will fall a prey to the victor, to the pleasure and satisfaction of the
one who has been defeated, and you will have no reason nor anything to
defend you and nobody to receive you. For, whoever wins will not desire
friends whom he suspects and who do not help him when in trouble, and
whoever loses will not receive you as you did not take up arms to venture
yourself in his cause.
Antiochus
went to Greece, being sent by the Ætolians to expel the Romans. He sent
orators to the Achaeans who were friends of the Romans to encourage them
to remain neutral; on the other hand the Romans persuaded them to take up
arms on their side. The matter was brought before the council of the
Achaeans for deliberation, where the ambassador of Antiochus sought to
persuade them to remain neutral, to which the Roman ambassador replied:
“As to what is said that it is best and most useful for your state not
to meddle in our war, nothing is further from the truth; for if you do not
meddle in it you will become, without any favour or any reputation, the
prize of the victor.”
And
it will always happen that the one who is not your friend will want you to
remain neutral, and the one who is your friend will require you to declare
yourself by taking arms. Irresolute princes, to avoid present dangers,
usually follow the way of neutrality and are mostly ruined by it. But when
the prince declares himself frankly in favour of one side, if the one to
whom you adhere conquers, even if he is powerful and you remain at his
discretion, he is under an obligation to you and friendship has been
established, and men are never so dishonest as to oppress you with such a
patent ingratitude. Moreover, victories are never so prosperous that the
victor does not need to have some scruples, especially as to justice. But
if your ally loses, you are sheltered by him, and so long as he can, he
will assist you; you become the companion of a fortune which may rise
again. In the second case, when those who fight are such that you have
nothing to fear from the victor, it is still more prudent on your part to
adhere to one; for you go to the ruin of one with the help of him who
ought to save him if he were wise, and if he conquers he rests at your
discretion, and it is impossible that he should not conquer with your
help.
And
here it should be noted that a prince ought never to make common cause
with one more powerful than himself to injure another, unless necessity
forces him to it, as before said; for if he wins you rest in his power,
and princes must avoid as much as possible being under the will and
pleasure of others. The Venetians united with France against the Duke of
Milan, although they could have avoided that alliance, and from it
resulted their own ruin. But when one cannot avoid it, as happened in the
case of the Florentines when the Pope and Spain went with their armies to
attack Lombardy, then the prince ought to join for the above reasons. Let
no state believe that it can always follow a safe policy, rather let it
think that all are doubtful. This is found in the nature of things, that
one never tries to avoid one difficulty without running into another, but
prudence consists in being able to know the nature of the difficulties,
and taking the least harmful as good.
A
prince must also show himself a lover of merit, give preferment to the
able, and honour those who excel in every art. Moreover he must encourage
his citizens to follow their callings quietly, whether in commerce, or
agriculture, or any other trade that men follow, so that this one shall
not refrain from improving his possessions through fear that they may be
taken from him, and that one from starting a trade for fear of taxes; but
he should offer rewards to whoever does these things, and to whoever seeks
in any way to improve his city or state. Besides this, he ought, at
convenient seasons of the year, to keep the people occupied with festivals
and shows; and as every city is divided either into guilds or into
classes, he ought to pay attention to all these groups, mingle with them
from time to time, and give them an example of his humanity and
munificence, always upholding, however, the majesty of his dignity, which
must never be allowed to fail in anything whatever.
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