Introduction

The last episode of Machiavelli’s career coincided with the decisive showdown in the Franco-Spanish struggle for control of Italy, which had begun in 1494. In May 1521, Pope Leo X (Giovanni ’de Medici) had allied the papacy and Florence with the Emperor Charles V (he became king of Spain in 1516 and was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1519). Charles had subsequently defeated the French, forcing them to evacuate the Duchy of Milan. The reversal of alliances had therefore paid dividends, but as fortune would have it, the pope died in December 1521. Clement VII (Giulio ’de Medici), indecisive and naive compared to the astute gambler Leo, made the fatal decision to return to Florence’s traditional alliance with France. On February 24, 1525, Charles’s forces had routed the French at Pavia, just south of Milan, capturing King Francis I on the field of battle. After years of a kind of semirehabilitation, Machiavelli was called into service by the Medicis to help to defend the city against the threatening armies of the emperor. In April 1526, Florence created a new magistracy to supervise the reinforcement of the city walls. Machiavelli was named its secretary and returned to the Palazzo Vecchio after an absence of fourteen years.