Machiavelli, Volume I | Page 2

of May 1469. The period of his life
almost exactly coincides with that of Cardinal Wolsey. He came of the
old and noble Tuscan stock of Montespertoli, who were men of their
hands in the eleventh century. He carried their coat, but the property
had been wasted and divided. His forefathers had held office of high
distinction, but had fallen away as the new wealth of the bankers and
traders increased in Florence. He himself inherited a small property in
San Casciano and its neighbourhood, which assured him a sufficient, if

somewhat lean, independence. Of his education we know little enough.
He was well acquainted with Latin, and knew, perhaps, Greek enough
to serve his turn. 'Rather not without letters than lettered,' Varchi
describes him. That he was not loaded down with learned reading
proved probably a great advantage. The coming of the French, and the
expulsion of the Medici, the proclamation of the Republic (1494), and
later the burning of Savonarola convulsed Florence and threw open
many public offices. It has been suggested, but without much
foundation, that some clerical work was found for Machiavelli in 1494
or even earlier. It is certain that on July 14, 1498, he was appointed
Chancellor and Secretary to the Dieci di Libertà e Pace, an office which
he held till the close of his political life at fall of the Republic in 1512.
[Sidenote: Official Life.]
The functions of his Council were extremely varied, and in the hands of
their Secretary became yet more diversified. They represented in some
sense the Ministry for Home, Military, and especially for Foreign
Affairs. It is impossible to give any full account of Machiavelli's
official duties. He wrote many thousands of despatches and official
letters, which are still preserved. He was on constant errands of State
through the Florentine dominions. But his diplomatic missions and
what he learned by them make the main interest of his office. His first
adventure of importance was to the Court of Caterina Sforza, the Lady
of Forlì, in which matter that astute Countess entirely bested the teacher
of all diplomatists to be. In 1500 he smelt powder at the siege at Pisa,
and was sent to France to allay the irritations of Louis XII. Many
similar and lesser missions follow. The results are in no case of great
importance, but the opportunities to the Secretary of learning men and
things, intrigue and policy, the Court and the gutter were invaluable. At
the camp of Cæsar Borgia, in 1502, he found in his host that fantastic
hero whom he incarnated in _The Prince_, and he was practically an
eye-witness of the amazing masterpiece, the Massacre of Sinigaglia.
The next year he is sent to Rome with a watching brief at the election
of Julius II., and in 1506 is again sent to negotiate with the Pope. An
embassy to the Emperor Maximilian, a second mission to the French
King at Blois, in which he persuades Louis XII. to postpone the
threatened General Council of the Church (1511), and constant
expeditions to report upon and set in order unrestful towns and

provinces did not fulfil his activity. His pen was never idle. Reports,
despatches, elaborate monographs on France, Germany, or wherever he
might be, and personal letters innumerable, and even yet unpublished,
ceased not night nor day. Detail, wit, character-drawing, satire, sorrow,
bitterness, all take their turn. But this was only a fraction of his work.
By duty and by expediency he was bound to follow closely the internal
politics of Florence where his enemies and rivals abounded. And in all
these years he was pushing forward and carrying through with
unceasing and unspeakable vigour the great military dream of his life,
the foundation of a National Militia and the extinction of Mercenary
Companies. But the fabric he had fancied and thought to have built
proved unsubstantial. The spoilt half-mutinous levies whom he had
spent years in odious and unwilling training failed him at the crowning
moment in strength and spirit: and the fall of the Republic implied the
fall of Machiavelli and the close of his official life. He struggled hard
to save himself, but the wealthy classes were against him, perhaps
afraid of him, and on them the Medici relied. For a year he was
forbidden to leave Florentine territory, and for a while was excluded
from the Palazzo. Later his name was found in a list of Anti-Medicean
conspirators. He was arrested and decorously tortured with six turns of
the rack, and then liberated for want of evidence.
[Sidenote: After his Fall.]
For perhaps a year after his release the Secretary engaged in a series of
tortuous intrigues to gain the favour of the Medici. Many of the stories
may be exaggerated, but none make pleasant reading, and nothing
proved successful.