Discuss the themes of Virtu and Fortuna in The Prince. Essay -- Englis

Discuss the themes of Virtu and Fortuna in The Prince. Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy on the 3rd May 1469. In 1498, Florence became a republic and Machiavelli gained a position within the Florentine government. After this he was soon confirmed by the great council as the second chancellor of the republic, making him the head of internal affairs. Less than a month later he was elected as secretary to the ten of war, which focussed on foreign and defensive affairs. In November 1498 Machiavelli was sent on his first diplomatic mission and over the years he continued with many more. On his first mission to France to see King Louis XII, which lasted six months, Machiavelli was able to observe the effects of having a single prince ruling a united country. When Machiavelli returned to Florence and he found it to be slowly disintegrating because Cesare Borgia endeavoured to create a principality for himself in Italy and during this time Machiavelli made many visits to him on behalf of the Florentine government to try and negotiate. When Borgia finally retaliated by killing his captains in Sinigaglia, Machiavelli was witness to this and later wrote an account of it. Machiavelli had a lot of admiration for Borgia’s conduct and believed his qualities would be found in the perfect prince who would eventually unite all the Italian states. Over the next few years Machiavelli maintained his position within the Florentine government and was sent on various missions and given many different roles with increasing amounts of authority over Florence. In 1513 Machiavelli is accused of being involved in an anti-Medici conspiracy with the Medici family being rulers of Florence at the time. Machiavel... ...t rule a principality. And also the book has visions of wanting to unite Italy, which is an idea 350 years ahead of its time. When Machiavelli wrote this book it was write for the time as there were frequent wars and some advice on the art of war was needed. Even though, in many cases, Machiavelli’s the Prince is still relevant today particularly in government, as if you want to succeed and gain power in it, you need to be ruthless and corrupted. Bibliography Machiavelli, N. (2003) The Prince. London: Penguin Group Solomon, R, C., Higgins, K, M., (1996). A short history of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Skinner, Q. (2000) Machiavelli – A very short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. www.constitution.org/mac/prince00/html - another translation of The Prince. â€Å"Machiavelli, Niccolo†. Microsoft Encarta 99 Encyclopedia.