I. Introduction
II. Life of Niccolo Machiavelli
III. Machiavelli's Works
IV. Machiavelli's Impact on Society
V. Legal Relevance of Machiavelli's Ideas
Early life and education
Machiavelli was the third and first son of attorney Bernardo di Niccol Machiavelli and his wife, Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli, and was born in Florence, Italy. The Machiavelli family is thought to be descended from the old marquesses of Tuscany and to have produced thirteen Florentine Gonfalonieres of Justice, one of the offices of a group of nine citizens chosen by lot every two months and who formed the government, or Signoria; he was never a full citizen of Florence, however, due to the nature of Florentine citizenship at the time, even under the republican regime. In 1502, Machiavelli married Marietta Corsini.
Machiavelli was born during a turbulent period. As popes and monarchs of France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire conducted acquisitive wars for regional dominance and control, the Italian city-states, and the families and individuals who ruled them, might rise and fall abruptly. Political-military alliances were constantly shifting, with condottieri (mercenary commanders) switching sides without warning and various short-lived governments rising and falling.
Paolo da Ronciglione, Machiavelli's instructor, taught him grammar, rhetoric, and Latin. Florence regained the republic in 1494, exiling the Medici dynasty, who had controlled Florence for sixty years. Shortly after Savonarola's execution, Machiavelli was appointed to the second chancery, a medieval writing office in charge of the drafting of official Florentine government documents.
Political career in Florence
During the first decade of the 16th century, he carried out a number of diplomatic missions, especially with the pope in Rome. Florence sent him to Pistoia to pacify the leaders of two opposing factions that had rioted in 1501 and 1502; when this failed, the rulers were expelled from the city, a strategy that Machiavelli had advocated from the start.
From 1502 to 1503, he witnessed the brutal reality of the state-building methods of Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) and his father, Pope Alexander VI, who at the time was engaged in the process of trying to place a large part of central Italy under their possession.
The pretext of defending the interests of the Church was used as part of Borgias' justification. Other excursions to Louis XII's court and to the Spanish court influenced his writings as Prince. In the early 16th century, Machiavelli designed a militia for Florence, which he then began to recruit and create.
He distrusted mercenaries (a distrust he explained in his official reports and later in his theoretical works because of their unpatriotic and uninvested nature in war). This ambivalence made their allegiance fickle and often unreliable when needed, and he instead staffed his army with citizens, a policy that has proven successful. In February 1506, he was able to march four hundred peasants, clothed (including iron armor) and armed with spears and small arms. Under his command, Florentine soldiers-citizens defeated Pisa in 1509.
Exile and later years
In August 1512, the Medici, supported by Pope Julius II, used the Spanish army to defeat the Florentines at Prato. After the siege, Soderini resigned as Florentine head of state and went into exile. This experience, like Machiavelli's passage through foreign courts and at Borgias, would strongly influence his political writing.
The city-state and the Florentine republic were dissolved, Machiavelli was dismissed and expelled from the city for a year. In 1513, the Medici accused him of conspiring against them and imprisoned him. Despite torture, he denied any involvement and was later released after three weeks.
After this episode, Machiavelli retired to his farm estate in Sant'Andrea in Percussina, near San Casciano in Val di Pesa, where he studied and wrote his political treatises. He traveled to France, Germany, and Italy to represent the Florentine Republic. Despairing of the ability to remain directly involved in political problems, he began to participate in intellectual organizations in Florence and created several plays that were both popular and widely recognized in his lifetime (unlike his works on political philosophy). Politics remained his primary focus, and to that end, he maintained a well-known communication with more politically connected friends, hoping to re-enter political life. His wishes would however, not come to pass. He describes in a letter to Francesco Vettori:
"When evening comes, I go back home, and go to my study. On the threshold, I take off my work clothes, covered in mud and filth, and I put on the clothes an ambassador would wear. Decently dressed, I enter the ancient courts of rulers who have long since died. There, I am warmly welcomed, and I feed on the only food I find nourishing and was born to savour. I am not ashamed to talk to them and ask them to explain their actions and they, out of kindness, answer me. Four hours go by without my feeling any anxiety. I forget every worry. I am no longer afraid of poverty or frightened of death. I live entirely through them."