Rising by luck or another person's power is easy. Keeping the summit is not. Machiavelli compares princes lifted by fortune or a patron's favor to things that grow too fast: unless a man of great ability builds foundations after the elevation, the first storm knocks him over.
Francesco Sforza and Cesare Borgia show the contrast. Sforza climbed through ability and kept Milan with little trouble afterward. Borgia, Duke Valentino, built during his father Pope Alexander VI's rise and lost everything when that rise reversed, even though he did nearly everything a wise prince should do to secure territory others had given him. Machiavelli knew Borgia personally and treats him as the best lesson for anyone raised by fortune or foreign arms.
Alexander embroiled Italy to carve out Romagna for his son, using French arms at first. Once Borgia saw Orsini troops waver and France stop his Tuscan advance, he decided never again to depend on others' luck. He broke the Roman factions, lured the Orsini to Sinigalia and destroyed them, then won the Romagna by first giving Ramiro d'Orco brutal authority to restore order and later executing Ramiro in public so the people blamed the minister, not the duke. Before Alexander's death Borgia had cleared dispossessed lords, won Roman gentlemen, stacked the college, and was expanding toward Tuscany until he stood almost on his own power.
Then fortune turned vicious. Alexander died. Borgia was sick, caught between French and Spanish armies, with much of his gains still in the air. His foundations still held: Romagna waited for him, Rome stayed secure even while enemies prowled the city. Machiavelli argues Borgia should be imitated, not blamed, except for one fatal error: allowing Julius II, a cardinal he had injured, to become pope. New benefits do not erase old injuries from great men. That mistake, not lack of talent, finished him.
Coming Up in Chapter 8
In the next chapter, Machiavelli turns to another crucial aspect of power and leadership Machiavelli turns to princes who seize power through wickedness, a path that depends neither on fortune nor on genius. He offers two cases: the ancient Agathocles of Syracuse and the modern Oliverotto da Fermo..
