Machiavelli's The Prince continues his exploration of the ways that people come to power in the modern world. In this episode, we discuss the role of the civil principality, and how it can help us understand how to become a prince.
00:27:23.520But they seem to dictate a lot more than this normal sovereign relationship would express, which makes us wonder.
00:27:33.060what's going on here, right? Because under Machiavelli's definition, Israel should be
00:27:37.740entirely subordinate to the United States. That doesn't seem to be the case. So that means there
00:27:41.700must be something else going on. There has to be another path to power that Israel has taken
00:27:47.200that is not the normal sovereign understanding. Again, this is why people don't like it when you
00:27:54.300start studying power, but this is pretty obvious, right? We have the conditions by which a sovereign
00:27:59.800should rule so if we see something breaking the pattern we need to look for other answers
00:28:05.420i've discussed in chapter six and we'll return in chapter 12 to 14 all i can say about this is to
00:28:12.200is to advise such princes to provision and fortify their cities and not to defend their
00:28:18.440rural areas if a prince has fortified the city well and has managed his subject's concerns in
00:28:23.900the way that i have described and will return to later others will be very cautious about attacking
00:28:29.300him men are never enthusiastic about enterprises that have that can see that they can see will be
00:28:37.500difficult and will be seen to be difficult to attack a ruler who is in his city and well fortified
00:28:43.120and isn't hated by his people so fortify the city have the uh have the supplies have what you need
00:28:50.140and make sure the people like you and if that's the case if you have the favor of the people
00:28:54.320you have a well-fortified city, and you have a well-provisioned city, people are just very
00:28:59.360unlikely to attack you because it's going to be difficult, and people don't like doing what's
00:29:03.140difficult. They want easy targets. They want easy victories. When cities of Germany are absolutely
00:29:10.120independent, they have little rural territory. They obey the emperor when it suits them
00:29:16.820too, and they aren't afraid of the emperor or any of his neighbors. That's because they are so well
00:29:23.060fortified that everyone thinks it would be tedious and difficult to take them and they'll always give
00:29:28.660have good moats and walls enough artillery public depots and enough food drink and fuel to last a
00:29:35.140year also to support the people without public expenditures or handouts they have a stock of
00:29:41.420raw materials that will provide a year's worth in trades that are the city's lifeblood and thus a
00:29:47.480wages of the workers in them they also have respect for military exercises and have many
00:29:52.940rule uh rules to make sure that they are held all right so this is a really interesting paragraph
00:29:58.960actually there's a lot to pull out of here so if you're not aware at this time we did not have a
00:30:04.000unified germany as you understand it you have like this holy roman empire and the different princes
00:30:09.640have a large degree of control in these different areas uh and that you know so you have like
00:30:15.840mixtures of principalities and republics kind of all in here and uh he says look ultimately
00:30:21.760because these areas are so autonomous because they have their own fortifications because
00:30:27.600they tend to have uh well uh well-defined cities they have all of these uh you know different
00:30:33.480logistical concerns uh taken care of people are just not going to go mess with them it's just
00:30:39.180going to be too tedious too difficult too costly and so even you know when it comes to obeying the
00:30:45.280emperor that kind of just do it when they want to and again that kind of goes against our idea an
00:30:49.960emperor has to be powerful an emperor has to have total control an emperor would be authoritarian
00:30:55.080right well no actually not really because if these different areas have a high degree of autonomy
00:31:02.000there's only so much the emperor can do and it would be unwise for the emperor to test his
00:31:06.780authority against people who could legitimately reject it and so he usually goes with a light
00:31:12.640hand. Again, there's just this misunderstanding of how monarchy used to work, how emperors and kings
00:31:18.900used to work. They did not have this constant tyrannical authority. In fact, they had to be
00:31:24.900very careful about how they express their authority when there are situations where those that they're
00:31:29.240expressing authority over could revolt. So you want to make sure that if you're going to force
00:31:34.980that authority down, the person can't ultimately resist it because that's going to make you look
00:31:39.460week and so most emperors and kings did not exert the level of authority that they theoretically had
00:31:44.740because they knew that if that authority was rejected by people who could reject it then that
00:31:49.700would be a serious mistake also very interesting in here he says that they they don't just have
00:31:56.180the food and the drink and everything else that you think you'd need in a siege they also have
00:32:01.700all the things you would need to work a trade for a year that's really interesting because because
00:32:07.160the city is not agricultural. They're not farming, that kind of thing. That's why they need the food
00:32:11.780and the water and everything stored up. Their money, their, their lifeblood is really these
00:32:17.300guilt. It's these tradesmen. It's the crafts that can only occur in the city, right? That that's
00:32:22.760where they really make their money in their economy. Basically saying you need to be ready
00:32:26.580to do domestic manufacturing. Your sovereignty is based on domestic manufacturing. Can you
00:32:32.300continue to produce the things you need to produce? Can you continue to operate your economy
00:32:36.860domestically when you're sieged when you couldn't otherwise trade with other people if the answer
00:32:42.780is yes then it's going to be far harder to drive you out of the city we can translate this into
00:32:48.180the modern day one of the reasons that our country is particularly vulnerable and has to maintain
00:32:53.300a global empire is we've offshored all of our manufacturing so we can't maintain our sovereignty
00:32:59.560because we can't maintain our economy without those open shipping lanes if america was somehow
00:33:04.900embargoed, if we had a whole blockade around the United States tomorrow, we would have serious
00:33:11.780problems logistically because of the way we structured our economy. Now, we're lucky in that
00:33:17.060the way that our country is positioned globally, we don't have to worry about that, but that's
00:33:21.380really important advice. Thus, a prince who has a strong city and hasn't made himself hated
00:33:29.760won't be attacked anyone who did attack him would be driven off humiliated because this world is so
00:33:35.880is so challengeable that it's almost impossible to keep an army idle besieging a city for a whole
00:33:41.940year someone may object if the people have property outside the city and see it burnt
00:33:47.220they won't remain patient and long siege and self-interest will make them forget their prince
00:33:52.180i reply with a strong energetic prince will overcome all such difficulties by giving a
00:33:57.340subjects hope that the trouble will soon overcome be over uh scaring uh scaring them with tales of
00:34:03.400enemies cruelty and moving nimbly to protect uh himself from those uh of his subjects who seem
00:34:09.660to uh who seem to him to be too bold so here he's saying okay look yeah you you can you know pull
00:34:16.060everyone in the city you can be sieged by these people but what if they go around burning everything
00:34:20.180in the country all these people who've been pulled into the city from the country they're
00:34:23.760going to look outside of their property burning and they're going to want to leave they're going
00:34:26.480to betray you so they can go defend that and he says no you which all you need is a strong enough
00:34:31.040prince who's going to ensure the people that uh you know that eventually this hardship's going to
00:34:36.520be over and there'll be some kind of vengeance or some kind of restitution and he tells him very
00:34:41.360directly scare your people scare your people with the enemy tales of the enemy's cruelty make it
00:34:46.600clear to them that if they go out of the city if they go out beyond your protection you're going
00:34:50.920to uh they're gonna get hurt again maybe not the most moral advice go scare your citizens
00:34:56.600but a a powerful trick when we have seen before when you are probably familiar with right now
00:35:03.180if we don't take action right now they're gonna get us they're they're weeks away weeks away from
00:35:10.340a bomb you know not not exactly a new not exactly you know we we have to fight them over there so
00:35:16.400they don't we don't have to fight them over here not a new tactic also as the enemy approaching
00:35:21.820the city they will naturally burn and ruin the countryside this will happen at a time when
00:35:27.540spirits of the people are still high and they are determined to resist this should actually
00:35:31.540encourage the prince because a few days later when the spirits have cooled the damage is already done
00:35:36.060and the bad thing has already happened and there is no remedy for them so the people will uh all
00:35:41.280will be all the more ready to support the prince because he seems to have under obligation to them
00:35:46.680now that their houses have been burnt and their possessions ruined by his defense they will
00:35:51.920support him because he is obliged to them yes because it's human nature to be bound to the
00:35:57.080benefits of one benefits one gives as much as those one receives all things considered therefore
00:36:04.460it won't be hard for a wise prince to keep the minds of his citizens steadfast through a siege
00:36:09.060as long as they have food and weaponry so he says don't worry about people who are we're watching
00:36:14.180the countryside burn because that's going to happen at the beginning of the war at the beginning of
00:36:17.940the battle when people are still on your side when it's still popular when they're still passionate
00:36:22.760about the conflict and he says once that passion cools and people start you know thinking a little
00:36:28.080more and worrying a little more well it's too late the countryside's already burned there's nothing
00:36:32.220for them to do about that that moment has already passed and now they're going to be dependent on
00:36:36.740you because they need you to get that retribution they need you to get that payback for what
00:36:41.540happened here and they also need you to defend them against the guys that are now there so more
00:36:45.660or less you don't have to worry about this because the bad stuff's going to happen while the people
00:36:49.100support you and as soon as you start losing support it's too late the bad stuff's already
00:36:52.780happened so there's nothing they can do about it plus they're going to want vengeance they're going
00:36:56.920to want restitution again you don't have to think too hard to kind of uh consider how this might
00:37:04.840apply in our current day well and once the bad things happen you already have the support and
00:37:09.460once people withdraw it's too late because now they need you to get vengeance for all the bad
00:37:14.060things that have happened you let the problem occur and then you sell yourself as a solution
00:37:19.920to that problem a classic political move we've seen and now we know its origins or at least
00:37:25.360one of its uh the people who laid out how that works chapter 11 ecclesiastical principalities
00:37:32.440up to here i've been discussing kinds of states and the ways to become a prince i am nearly
00:37:37.740finished with the whole topic all that is left for me to discuss are ecclesiastical principalities
00:37:42.820church states the difficulties that occur in relation to these concerns what happens on the
00:37:49.260way to getting possession because once such a principality has been acquired whether by virtue
00:37:55.680or fortune it can be held onto without either that's because church states are backed by ancient
00:38:01.640religious institutions that are so powerful and of such a character that princes can stay in power
00:38:08.480no matter how they behave and live. These are the only princes who have states that they don't
00:38:13.660defend as subjects who they don't rule. And the states, although unguarded, are not taken from
00:38:19.420them. And the subjects don't mind not being ruled and don't want to alienate themselves and have no
00:38:25.120way of doing so. Those are the only principalities that are secure and happy, but they're upheld by
00:38:31.100divine powers to which the human mind can't reach so i shan't say anything more about them
00:38:36.160they uh they are raised up and maintained by god it would be uh presumptuous and rash to discuss
00:38:43.040them so uh he's saying basically here look if you got your rule from god if if people are believed
00:38:51.980so thoroughly in the church that you have been given control over this area and that they will
00:38:58.160not transgress it. They will not take it because they would be defiling God's word. They would be
00:39:03.000at war with God himself. Well, congratulations, basically, because you don't have to worry about
00:39:08.060it. You don't have to defend the area. You don't even have to rule the people because ultimately
00:39:12.320you were given this by God and it can't be taken away from you. Anyone who crosses you is going to
00:39:17.660be crossing the church. They've been crossing God almighty, and that is going to be beyond the pale
00:39:22.600for them. So if you are someone who has kind of ended up in the situation where you control an
00:39:27.060area and people believe it's because of divine right, because God has given it to you and they
00:39:31.300would never, ever go in there and try to challenge your rule because that would be violating a
00:39:37.120religion they truly believe in. Well, then don't worry because you're pretty secure. And he says,
00:39:43.260basically, in fact, this is such a secure power and so beyond really the normal understanding of
00:39:49.680power that I don't even really discuss it anymore. But then he does a little bit, except for one
00:39:54.360matter someone may want to say how does it come about the church has so greatly increased its
00:39:59.260temporal power before the papacy of alexander the sixth the italian rulers not only of the great
00:40:04.880states but every baron and lord however minor regarded the church's temporal power as almost
00:40:11.000negligible but now a king of france trembles before it and it has been able to drive him from
00:40:16.580italy and ruin to the ruin of the venetians what happened remember one of the through lines you see
00:40:23.500and Machiavelli as well is his frustration with the church having the level of political influence
00:40:28.240it does in Italy. Really, Machiavelli did not want the church to be dictating to the level it did
00:40:34.960when it comes to Italian politics. So he's going to hit on this and say, hey, for most of history,
00:40:41.860the church has not been considered that powerful when it came to temporal matters, or I guess today
00:40:47.260in the modern world, we'd call these secular matters. But all of a sudden, the pope can now
00:40:52.200make kings powerful kings tremble what happened though the answer is well known it may be worthwhile
00:40:58.680for us to remind ourselves of before the king before king charles the eighth of france moved
00:41:03.980into italy this country was dominated by the pope the venetians the king of naples the dukes of milan
00:41:10.140and the florentines each of these uh powers has two two main concerns that no foreign army should
00:41:16.700enter italy and that none other than the four should seize more territory though those about
00:41:22.180whom uh there was the most anxiety were the popes and the venetians the venetians could be held back
00:41:28.920only by the other three working together and to keep down the popes the others had to make use
00:41:33.840of the barons of rome there were split into two factions there were sinis and the colonists
00:41:38.800and they were always on the brink of outright fighting so there so there they were weapons
00:41:44.520at the ready under the eye of the pope and this kept the papacy weak and indecisive the brevity
00:41:49.840of each individual papacy contributing to this popes have on average reigned about 10 years and
00:41:55.400that's hardly enough for a pope to pull down one of the factions and if of course uh or and if for
00:42:01.780example one pope came near to destroying the colonists he was uh he was to be succeeded by one
00:42:08.100a one who was hostile to the arenis that successor would pull the colonists up again and that
00:42:14.620wouldn't have enough power to ruin the arsenis that's why pope's temporal powers weren't given
00:42:18.760much respect in italy so he says basically there's this kind of tension this dynamic uh in a way uh
00:42:25.820breaches of government right the fact that every one of these different groups had to play each
00:42:32.000other's power off each other to kind of restrict the other one meant that no one could really
00:42:36.960consolidate control because if you tried to knock out one of these powers to bring more power to
00:42:41.440yourself eventually there would be this pendulum effect and they'd come back and you wouldn't be
00:42:45.480able to control the results of that and so everyone kind of was in this Nash equilibrium
00:42:49.780everyone's operating on the best strategy they can have at the moment they're they're playing
00:42:54.880the best cards that they have on a regular basis and this kind of maintained the situation
00:42:58.880then came Pope Alexander VI who was more than any previous pope showed that a pope could do
00:43:05.780what a pope could do with money and arms using duke valentino uh caesar borgia the and exploiting
00:43:12.600the opportunity provided by the french invasion of italy he did all the things that i mentioned
00:43:17.220in chapter 7 when discussing the duke's actions his aim was to build up the duke not the church
00:43:22.500but his actions did make the church more powerful and that increased power was the legacy that was
00:43:28.180left so the church after alexander's death and the downfall of his son after alexander there was pope
00:43:34.660Julius II, who found the church strong. It had control of all of Romania and the Roman barons
00:43:41.160and their factions had been wiped out by Alexander's severity. Julius also found a way for the church to
00:43:48.900accumulate money, a way that had never been followed before by Alexander VI. Julius didn't
00:43:53.980just follow the policies, he improved upon them. He planned to capture Bologna and squelch the
00:43:59.320Venetians and to chase the French out of Italy. He succeeded in all of this, and what makes this
00:44:04.340especially credible is that he did to is is that he did it to strengthen the church and not to
00:44:10.900benefit any private person as alexander sought to benefit his son he also kept the orsini and the
00:44:16.440factions within the bounds in which he found them and all the and although a few of the of their
00:44:22.740leaders were poised to make trouble two things held them back the greatness of the church with
00:44:27.760which julia julius terrified them and they're not having their own cardinals when these factions
00:44:33.180have their uh have their cardinals they don't remain quiet for long because cardinals take
00:44:37.880sides both inside rome and out of it and barons are compelled to support them in this way the
00:44:43.760ambitions of the prelates generate disorders and tumults among the barons for this reason his
00:44:49.720holiness pope leo x formerly the cardinal de medici found uh the papacy in a very uh strong
00:44:56.920condition and is to be hoped uh that that there were others made it and it is to be hoped uh that
00:45:03.960there were others made it great force great through force sorry strange in the structure there
00:45:09.800he will make it even greater and more venerated through his great his goodness and his countless
00:45:14.920other virtues so he says okay this guy recognized the momentum that had been created by his uh
00:45:21.100previous pope and he recognized what could be done with this money and this power and because
00:45:26.160he wanted to aggrandize the power of the church and not just build up this power and then hand
00:45:30.760it off to his son in the way that pope alexander had that meant that he was truly accruing it to
00:45:36.880this organization it wasn't kind of like using the church and using the organization to then
00:45:42.000set up someone else's power so there's a very different scenario want to go electric without
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00:46:14.540engineered for all all right now our big chapter here
00:46:19.720the different kinds of armies mercenaries chapter 12 now that i have given a detailed account of the
00:46:30.040kinds of principal principalities that i set out to discuss and have paid some attention to the
00:46:35.240causes of their flourishing or failing and have shown the methods by which many men have tried
00:46:39.860to acquire them and retain them i turn to a less detailed account of how each kind of principality
00:46:46.320can be attacked and defended i've spoken now uh i've spoken of how necessary it is for a prince
00:46:52.760to have firm foundations for his power otherwise he will go to ruin the chief chief foundation for
00:46:58.700all states new states and all new states as well as older composite ones are good laws and good
00:47:05.280armies because a poorly armed state doesn't have good laws and a well-armed state will will have
00:47:11.340good laws i i can set the laws aside and address myself to the armies the army which a prince
00:47:19.160defends his state with will either be his own or mercenaries or auxiliaries soldiers belonging to
00:47:25.340a commander by other or commanded by other princes or some mixture of the above mercenaries and
00:47:31.400auxiliaries are useless and dangerous uh and any ruler who lies on them to defend his state
00:47:38.600will be insecure and in peril because they are disunited ambitious under undisciplined and
00:47:45.740disloyal courageous when they are with their friends cowardly in the presence of their enemies
00:47:50.880they have no fear of god and don't keep their promises all right so lots there he says look
00:47:57.960if you're going to be a prince you got to have a firm foundation and the foundation of your power
00:48:02.760is violence it's the ability to do damage you need a good army okay so what kind of armies we
00:48:08.960have well you can have your own army you have an army based on mercenaries people you're paying
00:48:13.420or you can have auxiliaries which are uh are forces that are on your side but you don't control
00:48:19.780they have their loyalty to someone else usually another prince another king another army never
00:48:26.020use them he says never use mercenaries or auxiliaries because they're not tied to you
00:48:32.760they're they're not going to be ultimately loyal to you so they're going to be disunited they're
00:48:39.560going to be insecure your power is always going to be perilous they're going to be undisciplined
00:48:44.120they'll be disloyal because they're only there for pay or because some other government is telling
00:48:47.960them to be there they'll be create courageous you know they'll be very boastful when it's just them
00:48:53.760hanging out in the field but when it's time to actually do battle they're going to be cowardly
00:48:57.960because there's again no reason for them to keep their promises they're not going to fear god and
00:49:02.560they're not going to keep their promises because they're not loyal to you again many many many
00:49:08.580applications of this is why george washington told us to not make military alliances prolong
00:49:13.920military alliances because you can't trust auxiliaries you can't trust someone else's
00:49:18.380troops to do your job for you this is for instance when i hear people say things like
00:49:23.080we need to be uh you know we need to be uh in this long-term special relationship with israel
00:49:28.380because they can give us, uh, intelligence. No, no, that's, that's an auxiliary. That's not your
00:49:34.800force. You don't control it. And likewise for Israel, you know, you, if you make, if America
00:49:40.480is your auxiliary and America decides to do something else, well, it's unreliable for you.
00:49:44.940They're not loyal to you. Ultimately their interests should at least diverge from yours.
00:49:49.460So these are unwise. Again, we see this with, uh, so many international treaties, NATO, all this
00:49:55.680stuff you're counting on other people's troops to do your work the un peacekeeping forces that
00:50:02.180kind of thing always going to be cowardly always going to be undisciplined always going to be
00:50:06.420unreliable with them as his army the only way a prince can hold off his own ruin is by holding
00:50:13.180off any military attack in peace one is robbed by them and in war by the enemy why because those
00:50:19.880that because they have no affection for you and no reason to go to battle except small wages you
00:50:25.320pay them and those aren't enough to make them willing to die for you so he's like don't fool
00:50:29.400yourself any guy who's only fighting for pay is not loyalty yeah there might you know mercenaries
00:50:36.620have certainly died on the battlefield but if you're looking for that unbreakable strength
00:50:40.420that unbreakable will the guy who pushes forward and fights the guy who gets the medal of honor
00:50:44.980the guy who who storms the the machine gun nest or does the incredibly brave thing they're only
00:50:50.960going to do that if they really believe in the cause if they're really loyal to you if they're
00:50:55.440just there for pay we're not going to dive on grenades for you what's the point of diving on
00:51:00.680the grenade for a guy who paid you a little bit of money he's not going to pay you you're not
00:51:04.740going to be able to spend the money when you're dead the only thing that gives you that desire
00:51:09.360to sacrifice yourself is an existential connection right something that is transcendent that that you
00:51:15.880say i would rather die than betray this connection i need it so much that it'd be worth dying for
00:51:23.200like that's something you're not going to get from somebody you just sent a check to
00:51:27.580they're ready enough to be your soldiers while there aren't where they aren't at war with anyone
00:51:32.720but when the war comes they'll either desert you or run away on the battlefield if it does it
00:51:38.300shouldn't be hard to convince the reader of this because italy's downfall has been caused purely
00:51:43.220by the long period of reliance on mercenaries for a while they look good and actually won some
00:51:49.280battles against some other mercenaries but when the forces when the foreign armies show up the
00:51:53.880mercenaries were revealed in their true colors that's how it was possible for charles the eighth
00:52:00.060of france to seize italy with chalk in hand so savannan rolla again italian is fun uh told us
00:52:07.900that our sins were the cause of italy's troubles and he was right but the trouble came not from
00:52:13.060the sins that we're thinking of, but the ones I have described. They were the sins of the princes.
00:52:18.280It is fitting that the princes have also suffered the penalty. So he says, look, you've made a
00:52:24.160mistake by relying on mercenaries. Yeah, mercenaries might go into the field and they might
00:52:28.880even beat another mercenary army, but you will go up against a real army, a king's army, an army
00:52:34.000that is fighting for their lord, their nobility, their country, their cause, their God, their truth.
00:52:39.620they are not going to be broken by some guys who are just getting pay the guys who are getting paid
00:52:46.200are going to break before the guys who are serving their true king that's going to just be a totally
00:52:51.760different thing and he says you know you really have to worry worry about this because we've seen
00:52:56.300italy be destroyed by this so if you don't know at this time again italy is not a unified force
00:53:02.900right you know as he described previously it's this delicate balance of all these different
00:53:08.000other powers different kings different dukes uh different uh oligarchies all the church they're
00:53:14.820all playing off each other italy is really more of a collection of city states at this time we
00:53:21.480don't have a unified italy until garibaldi in fact that was part of uh machiavelli's point
00:53:27.320by the end of the prince it becomes clear he wants italy to unify he wants to have that same
00:53:32.860kind of unified power and he thinks italy's going to continue to get run over it's going to continue
00:53:37.780to get run run over until uh yeah they figure that out until they they fix this problem machiavelli
00:53:44.880knows this from experience because he had uh mercenary armies betray him repeatedly and so
00:53:50.460he actually went out and built his own force uh he made it his mission he had to build that
00:53:56.800republican force that he could draw on because he was so tired of having mercenaries betray him
00:54:01.960i want to show more clearly how unsatisfactory mercenary armies are if a given mercenary
00:54:09.420commander is a is virtuous then you can then you can't trust him because he will be busy pursuing
00:54:15.580power for himself either by turning against you his employer or attacking people whom you don't
00:54:21.520want to attack and if he isn't virtuous his incompetence will work against you in the usual
00:54:28.380way someone might object what what you have said about mercenary commanders holds for anyone
00:54:33.820with soldiers under his command whether mercenary or not the implication of this
00:54:38.540is that it doesn't matter what kind of soldier a state army has so he's saying here look if the
00:54:45.580mercenary captain is is good at what he does again this is where he's using virtue and like
00:54:51.800virtuoso here you are good at what you do if he's if he's good enough to to conquer and lead on his
00:54:58.280own, he's not going to be happy just working for some other guy. If he's got the ambition and he's
00:55:03.360got the skill, he's not just going to sit around and do the work for you. He's going to try to
00:55:06.840secure his own power. So you can't expect him to ultimately be on your side. He's going to do
00:55:13.200things that aren't in your interest because he's powerful enough. He's good enough at what he does
00:55:18.620that ultimately he is going to be able to take that position. The implication of this is that
00:55:26.360it doesn't matter what kind of soldier a state's army has i reply that it matters greatly and that
00:55:32.540when uh armed force is to be used by a prince when the prince ought to do what the prince then
00:55:38.800the prince ought to go in person and put himself in command of the army again always first and
00:55:45.040foremost machiavelli believes the prince should be a warrior and then a republic go and when a
00:55:51.040republic goes to war it has to send its citizens as commanders when one is sent he doesn't turn
00:55:55.580out satisfactorily he should be recalled and then the commander turns out to be very capable there
00:56:01.300should be laws that forbid him to exceed his assigned authority experience has shown princes
00:56:06.700and republics with their own armies do extremely well and the mercenaries doing nothing but harm
00:56:13.200and it is harder for a citizen to seize control of a republic than it is for his own for for
00:56:19.320republic that has its own army, sorry, than to do this with a republic that relies on foreign
00:56:26.240troops. All right. So if you're a prince, you should personally lead your troops. Don't give
00:56:31.260command to mercenaries, to other countries and their leaders. You should lead them. If you're
00:56:37.120a republic, you should send your citizens as commanders. If you have a bad one, bring them
00:56:41.480back and get a new one out there. If you have a good one, make sure there are laws that make it
00:56:45.260difficult for that guy to take power it says it's much more difficult for a skilled uh general to
00:56:52.720take power in a republic if uh yeah you know because he's constrained by the laws however
00:56:59.500if you have mercenaries if you have if you're using other people's troops that could be a
00:57:03.640different story examples of the advantages of republic having its own army rome and sparta
00:57:09.640stood for many ages armed and independent the swiss today are completely armed and entirely
00:57:14.560independent examples of the troubles of republics get into when they rely on mercenaries in ancient
00:57:20.940times the carthaginians were attacked by their mercenary soldiers after the first war with the
00:57:25.820romans although the mercenaries were commanded by carthaginian citizens the thebians after the
00:57:32.060death of their general uh epin epinondimus that's a fun one uh gave philip of macedon the command of
00:57:42.420their army and after victory he took it away took away their liberty when duke philippo died and the
00:57:49.520milanese engaged francisco suarza to lead their troops against the venetians he defeated the
00:57:56.640venetians at carveogi and when uh and then allied himself with the crush uh and then here we go
00:58:04.720lost it for a second and then allied himself uh with them to crush his employers the milanese
00:58:11.520His father, having been engaged as an army commander by Queen Johan of Naples, left her unprotected so that to save her kingdom, she had to appeal to the king of Aragon for help.
00:58:25.640it may it may be objected there are striking counter examples to your thesis about the dangers
00:58:32.180of hiring mercenaries the venetians and florentines extended their dominions by the use of mercenaries
00:58:37.680and their commanders didn't make themselves princes but defended their employers i reply that
00:58:43.560this i reply that in this matter the florentines were favored by chance the virtuoso commanders
00:58:49.740might have been uh threatened threats some weren't victorious some were met with opposition and
00:58:55.660others turned their ambitions elsewhere one who wasn't victorious was john john hawkward and since
00:59:02.040he didn't conquer his loyalty can't be proven but everyone will agree that if he had conquered the
00:59:09.380florentines would have been at his mercy sforza had braccio's people always against him so the
00:59:16.900Two mercenary leaders kept one another in check.
00:59:21.620Sorza turned his ambition to Lombardy.
00:59:25.640Braciano went against the church and the kingdom of Naples.
00:59:29.500But let us look at what happened quite recently.
00:59:31.960The Florentines appointed as their army commander, Paolo Vitelli, an extremely shrewd man who, from being an ordinary citizen, had ridden to great prominence.
00:59:45.120there's no denying that this man has uh was captured sorry there's no denying that if this
00:59:52.560man had captured pisa on their behalf the florentines would have uh had to return his services
00:59:58.300because of their enemies because if their enemies hired him as a commander they the florentines
01:00:04.300would be lost and if they keep and if they keep him they would have to obey him i.e there would
01:00:10.580be nothing to stop him from installing self as prince so again Machiavelli is saying look if if
01:00:19.720a mercenary happens to win and actually serves you and actually defends the people are supposed to
01:00:25.080you got lucky you got really lucky because ultimately you're at the mercy of the guy with
01:00:29.300the sword at the end of the day the guy with the sword the guy with the army makes the rules and
01:00:34.680so if you're lucky enough to use another person's sword and secure victory and they don't turn on
01:00:40.340you then you know pray pray to god thank god because ultimately you got incredibly incredibly
01:00:46.960lucky the far more likely thing is that once you're victorious if the mercenary captain can
01:00:52.380or if the foreign leader who you were using his arms can't they're going to turn on you
01:00:57.940they're going to try to make themselves more powerful as for the venetians if we look at
01:01:04.820their achievements we see that they fought confidently and gloriously so long as they
01:01:10.120were made as they made war using their own men with nobles and armed commoners fighting valiantly
01:01:15.780that was in sea battles when they began to fight on land they forsook their virtue
01:01:20.780and followed the italian custom of hiring mercenaries in the early stages of their
01:01:26.040expansion on land they had little to fear from their mercenary commanders because they didn't
01:01:31.200have much territory for their commanders to eye greedily and because of their great reputation
01:01:37.180which will have scared off many mercenaries who wanted to go up against them but when their domain
01:01:43.960expanded as it did under uh carmen gula they got a taste of the trouble that mercenaries can bring
01:01:51.380they saw that a virtue virtuoso soldier who was they beat the duke of milan under his leadership
01:01:58.620but they also but they also saw that he was becoming lukewarm about the war against milan
01:02:04.980and were afraid that he wouldn't bring them any more victories because he no longer had victory
01:02:09.880in mind so they didn't want to keep him on their payroll but they couldn't or they wouldn't or
01:02:16.360couldn't just dismiss him because they because that would threaten them with the loss of territory
01:02:21.640they had just gained the threat coming from an enemy whose army was commanded by the able
01:02:26.320permigula to keep themselves safe therefore they the only option was to kill him they recalled him
01:02:34.340to venice and uh for consultation and then accused him of treason and tried to behead him
01:02:39.980after him they had several mercenary commanders machiavelli names three of them uh who didn't
01:02:46.540create a a fear of their willing of their winning victory and then getting out of hand because they
01:02:52.640usually uh they usually lost as happens at the battle of valia there were in one battle they
01:02:59.480lost everything they were acquired through eight centuries of effort the use of mercenaries brings
01:03:04.260a widely spaced series of slow minor victories and a rapid rattle of large defeats these examples
01:03:10.340concern Italy which have been ruled by many years by mercenaries and I want to discuss more fully
01:03:15.440the problem that they raise because a because a grasp of its origins and growth will contribute
01:03:21.360to finding a solution so he says look you can have this really virtuoso you know this really good
01:03:29.060uh general he's a mercenary general he's out in the field but you feel like maybe he's not going
01:03:34.720to get the job done he's ultimately losing that drive to to get the final battle done
01:03:39.200you try to recall him but you can't recall him because he's might betray you you're pulling him
01:03:46.560out of the situation he's going to lose authority he's going to lose the money all of the incentives
01:03:51.640for him is ultimately to turn on you so they had to like bring this guy back and lie to him and try
01:03:56.680to kill him to replace him right and then once you do that who knows if you're going to lose all
01:04:01.200the territory that this guy has gained for you because once again you don't control the army
01:04:05.240you don't control the swords the essential background facts are that in the recent times
01:04:11.660the empire has been repudiated in italy the pope has acquired more temporal power and italy has
01:04:18.560been divided up into states many of the great cities took up arms against their nobles who
01:04:23.440ruled oppressively with the emperor's support. The church sided with the rebels as a way of
01:04:28.260increasing its temporal power and many other towns private citizens became princes. The upshot of
01:04:34.740this was that Italy fell partly into the hands of the church and the republics. The church
01:04:39.440consisted of priests in the republics of civilians and both started to hire foreigners to do their
01:04:47.200fighting. The first successful mercenary commander was Albergo de Cogno of Romagna, and it was
01:04:55.440through learning about him that Bracchio and Sforza and others were in their time the arbiters
01:05:00.980of Italy. After these came all the other mercenary commanders down to the present time. The result
01:05:07.020of their virtue has been that Italy has been overrun by Charles of France, robbed by Louis
01:05:13.560of France, ravaged by Ferdinand of Spain, and insulted by the Swiss.