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MISSION OF MACHIAVELLI TO THE SAME. - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, vol. 3 (Diplomatic Missions 1498-1505) [1498]

Edition used:

The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings of Niccolo Machiavelli, tr. from the Italian, by Christian E. Detmold (Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1882). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, 4 vols.

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MISSION OF MACHIAVELLI TO THE SAME.

INSTRUCTIONS.

You will proceed to Pontedera, where you will present yourself to the illustrious Lord of Piombino; and after having presented our letters of credence, you will explain to him that you have been sent by us because we had been informed by his chancellor, who is here, and through our ambassadors at Milan, that it is his Lordship’s desire to receive from us, besides the sum stipulated in the contract for his engagement, the additional sum of five thousand ducats; alleging that this was promised him, and that it would be no more than proper inasmuch as his lordship is in no way inferior to the Count Rinuccio. In relation to which demand we have judged that you could better explain by your personal presence what we have to say on the subject; which in fact amounts to this, that we are sincerely desirous of satisfying his Lordship generally in every respect, because of the good faith and affection which he has manifested towards our republic, and which we appreciate highly. You will enlarge upon this in the most effective manner, so as to show our favorable disposition towards his Lordship, but you will do it in vague and general terms, so as not to commit us to any positive obligation whatever.

As regards this demand for an increase of compensation, you will say that, so soon as we received notice of it, we examined the register of our military engagements, where we found in the second chapter that his Lordship had agreed with his Excellency the Duke of Milan and our magistracy that his compensation for the engagement was to be 2,400 ducats, and as much more as our magistracy might deem proper. And that upon this point we beg his Lordship to content himself with what at one time had been satisfactory to him. And although this matter was left to our discretion yet we trust that his Lordship will take into consideration the circumstances in which we find ourselves, but that he may count upon our good will; and that he will excuse us on account of the many considerations which we are obliged to have in this matter. And thus you will offer to his Lordship for another time all that is due to his valor and good conduct, and to the love we bear him; keeping however in your language always within the limits of friendly expressions, from which he may know our good feelings towards him and may hope to realize them. But above all you must have patience if he should threaten a rupture, and let him run on, and then reply and use your best efforts to induce him also to have patience.

It may also happen that his Lordship will claim from you the additional forty men-at-arms provided for in the third clause of his engagement. To which you will reply that, as his engagement was in common between us and his Excellency the Duke of Milan, it would not seem proper for us to make any alterations or additions to it without the concurrence of his Excellency, because of his interest in the matter. But that we will write to Milan about it and await a reply, which we doubt not will be in accordance with his Lordship’s desire. And so far as we are concerned in this matter you will assure his Lordship that we shall strive in every way to meet his wishes; and you will excuse this delay on account of the necessity above stated of having the concurrence of the Duke of Milan, because of his interest in the matter.

With these considerations you will carry out the first and second part of your commission; and you will do so in such manner as at the moment may seem most suitable to you.

Decemviri Libertates et Ballæ
Rep. Flor.

Ex Palatio Florentino, 24 March, 1499.

MISSION TO THE COUNTESS CATHARINE SFORZA.*

[* ]The Florentine republic, having resolved in 1498 to terminate the war against Pisa, not only made great efforts to collect a numerous army, and engaged in their pay the most renowned and powerful Condottieri of Italy, but they acted with the greater energy in this, as there was a probability of their being obliged to fight against the Venetians, who had declared in favor of Pisa. Amongst the captains thus taken into their pay by the Florentines was Ottaviano Riario, Lord of Furli; a young man of only nineteen years at the time. His mother, the Countess Catharine, was the natural daughter of the Count Francesco Sforza, who afterwards became Duke of Milan. Her first husband was the Count Girolamo Riario, Lord of Furli and Imola; after his death she married Feo di Savona; and after him Giovanni de’ Medici, son of Piero Francesco, who died at Furli, 14 September, 1498, and by whom she had a son called Giovanni Lodovico, who afterwards became celebrated as Giovanni delle Bande Nere, and who was the father of the Grand Duke Cosimo I. It was on account of her alliance with the Medici family that she showed herself friendly to the Florentines; and at the request of Andrea de’ Pazzi, Florentine commissioner in the Romagna, she permitted Ottaviano, her young son by her first marriage with Girolamo Riario, to enter the service of the Florentine republic; and on the 9th of June, 1498, the agreement for his condotta was duly signed at Florence by Sir Filippo Roffia da San Miniato as procurator for the young Count Ottaviano Riario; the engagement being for one year, with the option on the part of the Florentine republic of extending it for another year, and was to begin in the month of June, 1498. The Signor Ottaviano was to furnish one hundred men-at-arms and one hundred light horse, and was to receive fifteen thousand florins, which was to cover all provisions, etc., with the customary reservation of seven per cent, and four months’ notice in advance in case the Florentine Signoria wished to extend the condotta for a second year. The stipulations of the agreement were faithfully carried out by the Florentine government; and towards the end of January, 1499, they notified the Signor Ottaviano that they desired to continue the condotta for another year. The Signor Ottaviano, however, declined this, on the ground that the Florentines had not observed the stipulations of the agreement, inasmuch as he had already served eight months and had not yet received the advance pay to which he was entitled, and that therefore he did not consider himself bound to serve for a second year.

The Ten of Liberty dropped the negotiation, but not so the Lady Catharine of Furli, who, when she found that Cesar Borgia was about to make war upon the despots of the Romagna, and to begin it with an attack upon Furli, felt the necessity of surrounding herself with powerful allies, and therefore herself asked of the republic that which she had refused six months before; pretending that she had been called upon by her uncle Lodovico il Moro to aid him, he being seriously threatened by the army of King Louis XII. of France. She accordingly addressed a letter to the Florentine Signoria, stating that her uncle, the Duke of Milan, had applied to her for fifty men-at-arms, and a like number of mounted crossbowmen, but being under an engagement to serve the Florentine republic another year, if they required it, she begged them to inform her of their final intentions, etc.

Immediately upon receipt of this letter the Signoria resolved to send Niccolo Machiavelli as ambassador to the Countess Catharine to bring this matter to a conclusion, and for that purpose gave him theabove instructions.

Machiavelli had scarcely started from Florence when the Priors of Liberty, etc. sent an express messenger after him, with the following additional instructions: —

“Priores Libertatis et Vexillifer Justitiæ Populi Florentini.

“Spectabilis Vir, etc.: —

“In passing by Castrocaro you will have sent here, in accordance with our instructions, all the powder that may be there; and should this not already have been done, we desire you to have it done immediately. And then by way of securing an abundance of powder you will request the most illustrious Lady Catharine of Furli to let us have ten or twelve thousand pounds of powder, either as a loan or as a purchase, as may seem best to her Excellency. And furthermore, as we have lately had the news from the camp of the last reduction in the number of the infantry, and seeing that we have always been well served by the men from that country, you will make known to her Excellency that we desire that she should select five hundred good infantry under good captains, and with the pay lately agreed upon of fourteen lire and seventeen soldi, to be at our camp on the 28th of the present month, where they will receive their pay. These last two commissions respecting the powder and the infantry, you will treat in such manner as will carry them in the earliest and best way into effect. But should any difficulty arise on the subject, you will write to us immediately by the same courier that brings you this. Et bene vale!

“Marcellus Virgilius. “Ex Palatio nostro die Julii 1499.”