![]() ![]() Ironically, the most famous were the Italian condottieri, sophisticated professional soldiers who spent their lives serving various employers. Mercenaries were common in the Renaissance. Notice also Machiavelli's characteristic assessment of human selfishness: If you hire a talented mercenary who is successful, you will never be safe, because he will want to take over your position. They were also untrustworthy, because if they worked for a prince's money, they were probably just as willing to work for the prince's opponent. In his opinion, the mercenaries were lazy, looking only for the easiest way to get their money, regardless of whether this benefited the state that employed them. He blamed the mercenaries for lacking the spirit of soldiers who were defending their own lands and homes. He had good reasons to think so, having observed the widespread use of foreign mercenaries in Italy and what he felt were its disastrous consequences. ![]() Keeping with his view that independence and self-sufficiency are the only security, Machiavelli asserts that dependence on foreign troops is the kiss of death to a prince's power. "Good arms," in Machiavelli's view, can be only the state's own troops that is, its own citizens, rather than outsiders. In such a world, the weak will quickly be exploited by the strong unless they can defend themselves. However, the world he describes is clearly one of cutthroat competition and violence, in which only the well armed can live free. Just as in Chapter 1, where he declined to discuss republics, here he declines to discuss laws, confining himself to a prince's command of the military. Machiavelli further observes that where there are good arms there must be good laws, meaning that a ruler who is capable enough to raise and command a disciplined army must also be capable enough to keep his state well ordered.Įqually important is what Machiavelli chooses not to discuss. Even in the modern world, the state that does not rely on police or military force to keep order and protect its citizens is rare indeed. If the reader interprets "good laws" not in the strict legal sense, but as the conditions that make for orderly life in society, Machiavelli's observation loses some of its radical edge. Because force is an inseparable part of the state, a well-governed state needs a good army. It is tempting to interpret Machiavelli's quotable line that there cannot be good laws without good arms as just a variation on "might makes right," but this was probably not his intent. This chapter and the two following concern arms and armies. These mercenaries adopted strategies that kept them from hard work and danger, and this caused the ruin and humiliation of Italy. ![]() Soon mercenaries commanded every army in Italy. Because neither the citizens nor the popes knew how to fight, they hired mercenaries. ![]() Citizens took up arms against the nobles, and the popes encouraged them. All this began when the Holy Roman Empire lost power in Italy and the popes gained power. Machiavelli sites many examples of mercenaries who have turned on their employers. Only princes and republics that can field their own armies can succeed, for mercenaries do nothing but lose. If he is incompetent, he will ruin the prince. If a mercenary is talented, he will always be trying to increase his power at the prince's expense. Mercenaries and auxiliaries are dangerous and unreliable. There cannot be good laws without good armies, and where there are good laws, there must be good arms, so Machiavelli declares he will only discuss arms, not laws.Īrms to defend the state are the prince's own, mercenaries, auxiliaries, or a mix of the three. Princes must lay good foundations, and those foundations include good laws and good armies. Having discussed the different types of states in Chapters 2 through 11, Machiavelli now turns to how to attack and defend them. ![]()
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