Mercenaries and the Different Kinds Of Soldiers

What is the means of attack and defence in each of the principalities?

A prince must have his foundations well laid, otherwise he will go to ruin. The chief foundations of all states, new, old, or mixed, are good laws and good arms.

There cannot be good laws if the state is not well-armed. It follows that where they are well-armed they have good laws.

The arms with which a prince defends his state are either:

• his own
• mercenaries, auxiliaries, or
• a mix of both

Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous. A state based on them will stand neither firm nor safe, because they:

• are ambitious
• are not united
• are undisciplined
• are unfaithful
• are brave in front of friends but cowardly before enemies.
• have neither fear of God nor loyalty to men.

Destruction caused by them is put off only as long as the attack lasts.

In peace, one is robbed by them. In war, one is robbed by the enemy. Their only reason for staying in battle is a small pay which is not enough to make them willing to die for you.

They are ready to be your soldiers in peacetime. But if war comes, they disappear or run from the enemy. The ruin of Italy has been caused only by resting all her hopes for many years on mercenaries.

In they past, they displayed courage amongst themselves. But when the foreigners came, they showed what they really were. This is how Charles, King of France, seized Italy without resistance.

The mercenary captains are either capable or incapable. If they are, you cannot trust them because they always want to become more powerful either by:

• oppressing you or
• oppressing others, contrary to your intentions.

If the mercenary captain is not skilful, you are ruined anyway.

Some say that soldiers will act in the same way, whether mercenary or not.

I reply that when arms must be used, they are under the control of a prince or a republic.

• The prince should go in person and perform the duty of a captain.
• The republic has to send its citizens.
  • It should send back the unsatisfactory ones, and hold the worthy captains by the laws so that they do not leave the command.

Princes and republics, single-handed, make the greatest progress. Mercenaries do nothing except damage.

It is easier for a republic with its own army to take over another republic with a mercenary army.

Rome and Sparta stood for many ages armed and free. The Swiss are completely armed and quite free.

The Carthaginians were oppressed by their mercenary soldiers after the first war with the Romans, even if the Carthaginians had their own citizens for captains.

After the death of Epaminondas, Philip of Macedon was made captain of their soldiers by the Thebans. After victory, he took away their liberty.

Italian Mercenaries

After the death of Duke Filippo, the Milanese hired Francesco Sforza to fight against the Venetians. He defeated them at Caravaggio. He then joined with the Venetians to crush the Milanese, his masters.

His father, Sforza, was hired by Queen Johanna of Naples. He left her unprotected and so she was19 forced to surrender to the King of Aragon.

On the other hand, the Venetians and Florentines formerly extended their possessions by using mercenaries. Yet their captains did not make themselves princes, but have defended them.

The Florentines, in this case, were lucky because of the able captains, of whom they might have stood in fear, some have not conquered, some have been successfully opposed, and others have turned their ambitions elsewhere.

One who did not conquer was Giovanni Acuto, and since he did not conquer his loyalty cannot be proved. However, everyone will acknowledge that, if he had conquered, the Florentines would have been in his power. Sforza always had the Bracceschi against him, so they watched each other.

Francesco turned his ambition to Lombardy. Braccio against the Church and the kingdom of Naples.

The Florentines appointed Pagolo Vitelli as their captain. He was a very careful man who rose to fame. If he had taken Pisa, nobody can deny that it would have been proper for the Florentines to keep on good terms with him, because if he became the soldier of their enemies, they had no means of resisting. If they stayed friendly with him, they would have to obey him.

The Venetians acted safely and successfully, as long as they sent their own men to war when with their own armed gentlemen and citizens they did very well. This was before they turned to fighting on land, but when they began to fight on land they gave up this virtue and followed the custom of Italy.

In the beginning of their expansion on land, by not having much land to control, and because of their great reputation, they did not have much to fear from their captains. But when they expanded, they had a taste of this mistake of hiring mercenaries.

Having found him a very brave man (they beat the Duke of Milan under his leadership), and, on the other hand, knowing how unenthusiastic he was in the war, they feared they would no longer conquer under him. For this reason they were not willing, nor were they able, to let him go.

So, in order not to lose what they had acquired again, they were forced to murder him, in order to secure themselves. Afterwards they had Bartolomeo da Bergamo, Roberto da San Severino, the count of Pitigliano, and the like, for their captains under whom they had to fear loss and not gain.

This happened afterwards at Vaila, where in one battle they lost that which in 800 years they had acquired with so much trouble. From such mercenaries, conquests come slowly, are long delayed, and not very significant. The losses however are sudden and very great.

Italy has been ruled for many years by mercenaries.

The Italian empire has recently been destroyed, divided up into states. The Pope has acquired more earthly power. This is because many of the great cities rebelled against their oppressive nobles who formerly were supported by the emperor.

The Church supported the rebellions to gain earthly authority.

In many others, their citizens became princes.

Thus, Italy fell partly into the hands of:

• the Church, consisting of priests
• the republics, consisting of citizens

Both hired foreign mercenaries.

Alberigo da Conio, from the Romagna, first made mercenaries well known. From his school came, among others, Braccio and Sforza, who in their time were the masters of Italy.

After these came all the other captains who till now have directed the military of Italy. Through them, Italy had been:

• invaded by Charles
• robbed by Louis
• exploited by Ferdinand
• insulted by the Swiss

The mercenaries’ principles were:

1. Lower the credit of foot soldiers so that they might increase their own status.

They did this because they did not have their own lands to give them income and so had to survive on their pay. They were thus unable to support many soldiers.

Moreover, having foot soldiers did not give them any authority, so they were led to employ cavalry. In this way, a moderate force could maintain themselves with some status.

However, this meant that in an army of 20,000 soldiers, there were not even 2,000 foot soldiers.

Besides this, they used every trick to reduce:

• their own involvement
• the danger to themselves and their soldiers.

2. These tricks included:

• not killing in the battle, but taking prisoners and liberating without getting money in return
• not attacking at night
• not surrounding their own camps with a wall or a ditch
• not fighting in the winter

All these things were permitted by the military rules they created to avoid both effort and danger. Thus, they reduced Italy’s reputation and have brought it into slavery*.