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Subject Area: Political Theory

LETTER IV. - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, vol. 4 (Diplomatic Missions 1506-1527) [1506]

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. 4.

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

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LETTER IV.

Magnificent Signori, etc.:

I arrived here last Monday at an early hour of the morning; it was impossible for me to reach here sooner, having lost three days at Borgo a San Donnino and Milan. I presented myself before his Majesty the king in company with his Magnificence the ambassador, who has written you a detailed report of all we did, to which I refer in all respects. I shall remain here so long as it may please his Majesty; that is to say, so long as he may deem it necessary for the object of my mission, which cannot exceed six or eight days. After that I shall return with his Majesty’s gracious permission, and the good pleasure of your Lordships, to whom I ever recommend myself.

Servitor

Niccolo Machiavelli,
Secret.

COMMISSION TO PISA AT THE TIME OF THE COUNCIL.*

[* ]The two preceding legations and the present commission to Pisa relate to the celebrated differences between Pope Julius II and Louis XII., king of France, at whose instigation a General Ecclesiastical Council had been convoked at Pisa, for the purpose of deposing Pope Julius II., who had contemptuously rejected all offers of peace, and had carried his violence so far as to have the French ambassador arrested, and had launched interdicts and excommunications against his enemies. The Emperor of Germany, Maximilian I., had joined the king of France in the project of deposing Pope Julius II. by a General Council; having himself the extraordinary idea of assuming the papal tiara with his imperial crown, in the event of Pope Julius’s deposition by the Council. The Florentines at the request of the king of France had consented to allow the Council to be held at Pisa; but they soon became alarmed at the dangers threatened in consequence by the vengeance and violence of the Pope, with the Venetian army at the north, and that of the Spaniards at the south. The Signoria saw no other way to avert these dangers than to endeavor to persuade the king of France to dissolve the Council and make peace with the Pope. It was for this purpose that Machiavelli had been sent on these missions to the court of France, where Roberto Acciaiuoli was at the time the accredited ambassador.

The Florentine Signoria had already sent several commissioners to Pisa to be present at the meetings of the Council; and after Machiavelli’s return from France, where he had successfully accomplished his mission, he was sent by the Signoria to take a body of troops to Pisa, as a guard to watch the Florentine interests; and above all to dispose the prelates to leave that city, which had been conceded with the utmost reluctance by the Florentine Signoria for the purpose of this Council.