{"id":74919,"date":"2022-07-28T08:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T12:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=74919"},"modified":"2022-08-11T10:21:17","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T14:21:17","slug":"machiavelli-borgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Might Cesare Borgia have conquered all of Italy? Where did he go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Italian Renaissance, Cesare Borgia found huge success and was poised for more. But, it all came crashing down around him. According to Machiavelli, Borgia might have stayed in power if he had been more prepared for life’s inevitabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn how fortuna<\/em> can destroy a prince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Machiavelli on Borgia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Princes often meet their downfall due to bad luck, but Machiavelli argues that a lack of skill also plays a role in their failure. If the prince had planned ahead better or anticipated threats, they could have endured whatever bad luck came their way. According to Machiavelli, Borgia (a notorious Italian prince of the late 1400s and early 1500s) is a good example of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borgia was unprepared for a change in his fortunes. As the son of a pope, he had enormous success manipulating his enemies and establishing his own state in central Italy. For a time, it seemed like Borgia might succeed in conquering the entire peninsula, but, soon after his father died, his state crumbled. He failed to either foresee the danger or to adapt to the times, and all his cunning and brutality could not protect him from being overthrown. Machiavelli argues that, if he had better prepared for the inevitability of his father\u2019s death, he might have held onto power longer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borgia as an Ideal Prince<\/strong>

Machiavelli invokes Borgia more often than any other historical figure, leading some to call Borgia the \u201chero\u201d of The Prince<\/em>. What may be lost on a modern reader is how bizarre and controversial Borgia was as a choice. His family was a known enemy of the Medici, to whom Machiavelli dedicated The Prince<\/em>, and Borgia\u2019s name was synonymous with treachery and violence throughout Italy. 

Whatever successes Borgia may have had in life, it ended in disgrace<\/a>, and Machiavelli frequently contradicts himself when attempting to praise him. For example, in the same breath as arguing that Borgia failed to prepare for his father\u2019s death, Machiavelli insists that Borgia had \u201cdone all that ought to be done by a wise and able man\u201d and, indeed, \u201ccould not have regulated his conduct otherwise.\u201d If Borgia\u2019s skill was simply not enough to defeat fortuna<\/em>, does that mean his downfall was inevitable?

This, along with other inconsistencies, has provided evidence for the belief among some scholars that The Prince<\/em> is actually intended as a satire<\/a>. If Machiavelli invokes Borgia as representative of all princes<\/a>, that may mean that all princes are cruel, dishonest, self-interested, and ultimately doomed to fail. His comparison of Borgia to the Medici might have been intended as a condemnation<\/a>, revealing to the reader that all princes were fundamentally alike<\/a>, even when they opposed one another. While this reading is not universally accepted, it does provide one explanation for how the known republican Machiavelli could praise an authoritarian like Borgia.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Might Cesare Borgia have conquered all of Italy? Where did he go wrong? During the Italian Renaissance, Cesare Borgia found huge success and was poised for more. But, it all came crashing down around him. According to Machiavelli, Borgia might have stayed in power if he had been more prepared for life’s inevitabilities. Keep reading to learn how fortuna can destroy a prince.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":74923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,33,275],"tags":[710],"class_list":["post-74919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-people","category-politics","tag-the-prince","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nMachiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to Machiavelli, Borgia might have stayed in power if he had been more prepared for life's inevitabilities. Learn more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to Machiavelli, Borgia might have stayed in power if he had been more prepared for life's inevitabilities. Learn more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-28T12:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-11T14:21:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-28T12:29:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-11T14:21:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/\"},\"wordCount\":499,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Prince\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"People\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/\",\"name\":\"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-28T12:29:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-11T14:21:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"According to Machiavelli, Borgia might have stayed in power if he had been more prepared for life's inevitabilities. Learn more.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\",\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\"},\"description\":\"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.\",\"sameAs\":[\"rina@shortform.com\"],\"award\":[\"Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)\",\"Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)\",\"Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)\",\"Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)\"],\"knowsAbout\":[\"History\",\"Theology\",\"Government\"],\"jobTitle\":\"Senior SEO Writer\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared - Shortform Books","description":"According to Machiavelli, Borgia might have stayed in power if he had been more prepared for life's inevitabilities. Learn more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared","og_description":"According to Machiavelli, Borgia might have stayed in power if he had been more prepared for life's inevitabilities. Learn more.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2022-07-28T12:29:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-11T14:21:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Elizabeth Whitworth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elizabeth Whitworth","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/"},"author":{"name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13"},"headline":"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared","datePublished":"2022-07-28T12:29:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-11T14:21:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/"},"wordCount":499,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg","keywords":["The Prince"],"articleSection":["History","People","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/","name":"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-28T12:29:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-11T14:21:17+00:00","description":"According to Machiavelli, Borgia might have stayed in power if he had been more prepared for life's inevitabilities. Learn more.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg","width":1200,"height":630},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/machiavelli-borgia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Machiavelli: Borgia Should Have Been More Prepared"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13","name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elizabeth Whitworth"},"description":"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.","sameAs":["rina@shortform.com"],"award":["Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)","Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)","Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)","Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)"],"knowsAbout":["History","Theology","Government"],"jobTitle":"Senior SEO Writer","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/success-favours-the-prepared.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75142,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74919\/revisions\/75142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}