them to pray to their God for his and the Armies deliuery out of that danger Which they presently did and incontinent a great thunder fell amongst the enemies and abundance of water vpon the Romans wherby their thirst was quenched and the enemy ouerthrowne without any fight But prayer will not auaile euery Christian vnlesse he walke vprightly for God wil not heare the prayers of those that lye and wallow in sinue as appeareth Joh. 9. And Dauid saith Psal 65. Jf J finde iniquity in my heart the Lord will not heare me And God saith when you shall extend and lift vp your hands I will turne mine eyes from you and when you shall multiply your prayers I will not heare you for your hands are full of bloud I saias chap. 1. Therefore if a man be in wicked or bloudy sinne his prayer is in vaine CHAP. 11. A Prince not to shed innocent blood IT behoueth therefore a Prince to be vertuous and to haue speciall care that he put not his hand in innocent blood neither by tyranny malice ambition pollicy or vpon false reports and informations For to be a Tyrant is odious to God and man and to bring himselfe to an euill end As the Emperour Nero who after he had put to death his mother Agrippina his wife Octauia his brother Brittannicus and his Master Seneca Besides many others being proclaimed an enemy to the Common-wealth could get no body to kill him but was glad to kill himselfe saying Turpiter vixi turpius morior The Emperour Caius Caligula amongst other his tyrannies caused at his dinner and supper ordinarily one to cut off before him the heads of poore prisoners wherein he tooke great pleasure in the end he himselfe was killed by his men who conspired against him Nabis the Tyrant who vsurped the gouernment of the Lacedaemonians sent for eighty of their yong Princes and without any cause put them all to death And shortly after Alexamenes vnder pretence to serue him with some company suddenly strucke him off from his horse and killed him And as these tyrants had their iust rewards so all others had the like measure And for their wicked instruments the people oftentimes did Iustice vpon them For Plutarch writeth that the wicked Counsellors and Instruments of Apollodus of Phalaris Dionysius Nero and other tyrants were cruelly tormented to death by the people and iustly saith he because they who corrupt or seduce a Prince deserue as much to be abhorred of euery one as those who should poyson a publicke Spring or Fountaine whereof all the people doe drinke But sometimes those Princes that doe vse instruments for their murthers will not auow their Commission but doe themselues many times put them to death whom they imployed therein sometimes secretly sometimes publikely either to rid themselues of the suspition and infamy thereof or for feare of discouery As Alexander Magnus at his fathers Funerals commanded publike Iustice to be done vpon those who himselfe had secretly imployed to kill him The Emperour Tiberius did not onely dissauow his Commission giuen to a Souldier to kill Agrippa but put to death Seianus his speciall fauourite and instrument of his mischiefe Caesar Borgia did the like by a fauourite of his And let no Prince thinke that he can so contriue his matters but in the end truth will be discouered and knowne to the world and through ambition many haue shewed themselues very barbarous and bloudy as Tullia daughter to Seruius seeing her selfe married to Aruus a man of milde disposition and her sister of a gentle spirit married to Lucius Tarquinius who was ambitious and she not enduring to be thus matched killed her husband Aruus and her sister and then married Tarquinius whom she perswaded to kill her father Seruius to haue the Kingdome and she being in the streets when he was killed went with her Coach very inhumanely ouer his body that his bloud besprinkled her cloathes Soliman King of the Turks when he heard the great noyse and shout of ioy his Army made for the returne of his sonne Sultan Mustapha out of Persia caused him presently to be strangled in his outward Chamber and his dead body to be cast out before the whole Army and one to cry with a loud voyce that there was but one God and one Sultan vpon the earth He put to death also Sultan Soba because he wept for his brother and Sultan Mahomet his third sonne because he fled for feare leauing one onely aliue to auoyde the inconuenience of many Lords The Emperour Seuerus hauing vanquished Albinus and Niger his Competitor in the Empire embrued with blood put a great number to death and told his sonne Geta that he would not leaue him an enemy Geta asked him if those he put to death had neither parents friends nor kinsfolke yes said the Emperour a great number Then said Geta you will leaue vs many moe enemies then you take from vs. His sonne Bassianus hauing murthered his brother Geta to haue the Empire alone and doubting that the Senate would greatly mislike thereof made a shew that he was sorry for his brothers death and that he did it by the perswasion of Letus his fauourite whom therefore he put to death and all those that did assist him in that action likewise all those that were friends to Geta lest they should attempt any thing against him yet in the end he was killed Alphonsus King of Naples hauing vniustly murthered twenty foure of his Barons could neuer sleepe quietly for representation of their shapes which alwayes vexed him in his dreames And in the end hee fell into that feare of the French as leauing his Kingdome to his sonne he fled into Spaine to liue a in a Monastery making such haste as he would take nothing with him And his men perswading him to stay two or three dayes to make his prouision no no said hee let vs be gone doe you not heare how all the world cryes France France Hee knew himselfe to be so hated King Iohn of England murthered his nephew and in the end was murthered himselfe Richard likewise Duke of Glocester murthered his two nephews sonnes to Edward the fourth to make himselfe King and after was slaine in battell by Henry the seuenth for blood requires blood and let a bloody Prince neuer looke for better end CHAP. 12. A Prince to be circumspect in giuing credit to reports BVt many Princes haue been mightily abused by false reports and wrong informations yea sometimes by the nearest and dearest vnto them and those that should be most faithfull Dauid therefore prayed God to deliuer him from wicked lips and a lying tongue Psal 119. And in Eccle. 31. we are warned to take heed of our children and of our houshold seruants And in the sixt chapter it is said Seperate thy selfe from thine enemies and beware euen of thy friends for where a man doth trust the most there he may soonest be deceiued As was the Emperour Glaudius a
tymorous man and gouerned most by his wife Messaline and by one Narcissus who of a slaue he had made free and had familiar credit with Messaline This Empresse became enamoured of a yong Gentleman a Roman of a Noble house called Appius Sillanus and seeing that by no meanes she could draw him to satisfie her wanton defires she practised with Narcissus that they both early one morning should come to the Emperour and tell him that they dreamed that Sillanus went about to kill him which they did one after the other Messaline had giuen commandement that Sillanus at that instant should come to speake with the Emperour Whereupon Sillanus innocently came and knocked at the Emperours chamber doore which the Emperour vnderstanding and perswaded by them that their dreams were true and that he came then to kill him commanded Sillanus presently to be put to death which was done Salome sister to Herod King of Jury perswaded him that the Queene his wife sought to poyson him and brought certaine false witnesses to confirme her report to which the King giuing credit put his Queen to death But this wicked sister not satisfied with this fearing that the Kings two sonnes would reuenge their mothers death perswaded the King that they were practising how to kill him for putting their mother to death The King fearing the Authority of the Emperour if he should put them to death brought them before Augustus Caesar who knowing their innocency by their weeping great lamentation exhorted thē to be dutifull to their father their father to make much of them and so dismissed them but the Kings sister inuented new matter against them perswaded her brother to send the Emperor word theref which he did then the Emperor gaue him authority to punish them as he thought good whereupon the King put them both to death But after vnderstanding the truth and that Antipater his sonne by another wife practised all this with his sister he put him to death within few dayes after dyed himselfe his intrailes being inflamed and thereby his bowels rotted raging at these accidents Philip King of Macedonia put to death his owne sonne Demetrius vpon the false report and accusation of Persius his base sonne and after vnderstanding how he was abused dyed raging Adelstan first Monarch of England after the entry of the Saxons through the false report of his fauourite put his owne brother to death Francis Duke of Britaine put his brother Giles to death vpon the false report of those that were messengers betwixt them and after he vnderstanding the truth put them to death also Therefore as in 1 Iohn 4. it is said Beleeue not euery spirit but proue the spirits whether they be of God or not So a Prince should duly and throughly examine report whether it be true or not before he giue credit thereunto and especially if it concernelife for innocent bloud doth cry to God for reuenge as appeareth in the Apoc. 6. saying How long Lord holy and iust iudgest thou not and reuengest thou not our bloud on them that dwel vpon the earth And Salomon saith that the hands which shed innocent blood are most odious in the sight of God Prou. ch 4. Likewise Dauid affirmeth Ps 65. That God doth abhorre abloody man Therefore Junenal saith that euery stay which is made to giue life to man is good And he that doth vse to examine a report made vnto him that toucheth a mans reputation shall free himselfe from lyars for a lye cannot abide examination CHAP. 13. A Prince to be mercifull A Prince therefore should incline himselfe to mercy and pardon iniuries and auoyd the vices which may draw him to blood which chiefly are ambition pride choller and subiection to a woman Seneca saith that forgiunesse is a valiant kind of reuenge And the more powerfull a man is the more is his honour to forgiue And Pittacus the Philosopher doth affirme that pardon is better then reuenge the one saith he being proper to the spirit the other to a cruell beast Therefore Alexander Magnus said that a man wronged had need of a more noble heart to forgiue then to reuenge And Cicero did more commend Caesar for ouercomming his owne courage in pardoning Marcellus then for the great victories against his enemies The Emperor Adrian attaining to the Empire forgot and put away all the enemies hee had before Insomuch that after he was Emperour meeting one of his enemies would not touch him but said to him thou art escaped Augustus Caesar hauing many enemies by reason of the ciuill warre did not onely pardon them but aduanced them to dignities and offices and thereby wonne their loue and made them faithfull Hamilcar hauing ouerthrowne Splendius Generall of the Mutineers against Carthage pardoned the prisoners and offered them seruice or liberty to returne to their countrey which got him great honour and loue of many of his enemies Scipio Affircanus set at liberty all the Hostages he found in new Carthage after he had wonne it by assault saying He had rather bind men to him by good deeds then by feare And amongst the Hostages there was a maruellous beautifull young Lady who was contract to Allucius Prince of the Celtiberians Scipio commanded them both to be brought before him and her parents came with great treasure to redeeme her by ransome But Scipio said to Allucius my friend vnderstanding of the loue betwixt this Lady and you I haue kept her for you not touched in honor for recompence of this fauour I pray you be a friend to the Romans Her parents then presented Scipio with great treasure which through much importunity he was content to take but bestowed it presently vpon Allucius who not long after came to serue Scipio with 1400 horse Scipio likewise by pardoning Massima his vncle Massinissa became and continued a friend to the Romans So that mercy bringeth friendship and cruelty hatred CHAP. 14. A Prince not to be proud PRide was the fall of Lucifer the ouerthrow of Babylon and the ruine of many a Prince for nemo superbus amat superos nec amatur ab illis A proud man loueth not the gods nor is beloued of them Pride produceth sometimes cruelty but alwayes shame for Salomon saith when pride commeth then commeth shame but with the humble is wisedome Prou. 11. Therefore God resisteth the proude and giueth grace to the humble Iam. 3. Allades King of the Latines contemning the gods deuised how to make a noyse like thunder and lightning to make the people feare him as a god but thunder and lightning falling vpon his house from heauen and a Lake ioyning vpon his house ouerflowing extraordinarily he and his family were were all swallowed vp Iulius Caesar after he was Emperour grew so proud as he was therefore killed by the Senators in the Senate And the Emperour Domitian was so proud as that hee commanded in all his Proclamations and publicke speeches these words to be vsed Be it knowne vnto
actions as well to be feared of his foes as to be beloued of his friends and not to be curious to speake eloquently but to deliuer his mind plainely and wisely it being more necessary for a Prince to doe well then to speake well For wise words are not commendable if the deeds be not answerable whereupon the Philosopher Pacuinus saith those are to be hated who in their acts are fooles and in their words Philosophers They that will therefore saith Plato haue glory in this life and attaine to glory after death and be beloued of many and feared of all let them be vertuous in doing good works and deceiue no man with vaine words And he counselleth the Athenians to chuse a Gouernour that is iust in his sentence true of his word constant in his act secret and liberall These be the principall morall vertues most cecessary in a Prince CHAP. 3. A Prince to be iust in his sentence FOr a Prince ought to be iust in his sentence according to the words of Salomon Sap. 1. saying Loue Justice you that Iudge the Earth For a iust King saith he Pro. 29. doth aduance his Countrey and the King that iudgeth the poore rightly his throne shall be established for euer Therefore he ought not to be led either by fauour passion or gaine but according to equity and iustice and to haue care that all his Counsellors and Magistrates doe the like And to attaine to this vertue of Iustice a Prince must call to God for wisedome which he cannot obtaine being of euill life For wisedome will not enter into a soule possessed with malice nor dwell in a body subiect to sinne saith Salomon Sap. 1. But if thou saith he call for wisedome and encline thine heart to Prudence then shalt thou vnderstand Iustice and iudgement and equity and euery right way Prou. 2. Therefore he prayeth saying Giue mee O Lord that wisedome which assisteth thy seate and cast me not off from the number of thy seruants for that I am thy bond-slaue and the sonne of thy bond-woman a weake man and of short life vnable to vnderstand aright what is Iustice and Law and whosoeuer is the most perfect and excellent amongst the sonnes of men he is to be accounted as no body if thy wisedome doth not assist him Sap. 9. All good and worthy Princes haue laboured to attaine to this wisedome and to execute iustice most exactly insomuch that some haue not spared their owne children so sacred a thing they held Iustice to be As for example Brutus who vnderstanding that his two sonnes were of the conspiracy for Tarquinus Superbus caused them both to be put to death in his owne presence Cassius likewise seeking to get the loue of the people and to make himselfe King was beaten to death by his father Pausanias Generall of the Lacedaemonians receiued 500 talents of gold to betray Sparta but Agesilaus his father vnderstanding thereof pursued him into the Temple of Minerua whither he fled for Sanctuary and caused the doores of the Temple to be nayled vp and so there made him dye of famine then his mother tooke his corpes and threw it to the dogs not suffering it to be interred Darius likewise King of Persia vnderstanding that his sonne Ariobrazanes ment to betray him to Alexander Magnus cut off his head Titus Manlius being challenged by one of the Latins to fight the Combate stepped forth of his ranke and in Combate killed him yet because it was done without license his owne father being then Consull and Generall presently put him to death Posthumius likewise did the same to his sonne Fidericke Earle of Harlebecque and Forrester of Flanders hauing made very straite Lawes for the reducing of his Countrey to lustice and good life put his sonne to death for breaking the Law in taking a basket of Apples from a poore woman and not paying for them Edward the first put his sonne in prison Prince Edward for breaking the Parkes of the Bishop of Chester Henry the fourth also commended the Lord chiefe Iustice of England for committing the Prince to prison for transgressing the Law And King Antiochus had that care to haue Iustice ministred as he writ to all the Cities of his Kingdome that they should not execute any thing he commanded if it were contrary to Law but they should first aduertise him thereof The Emperour Justinian likewise commanded the Lawyers to be sworne that they should not plead in an euill and vniust cause The like Law was made in the ninth Parliament of James the first King of Scotland that all Counsellours and Aduocates before they plead any temporall cause should take oath and sweare that they thinke the cause to be good they plead Lewis the ninth King of France was a iust and vertuous Prince louing the good and punishing the wicked and was a Capitall enemy to sutes commanding the Iudges to doe speedy Iustice so that sutes then were laid away Alexander Magnus was so farre from being transported from Iustice as when any made complaint to him of another he slopped alwayes one eare saying he must keepe that for the party accused The Emperour Adrian was of that integrity in Iustice as one Alexander accused another before him called Aper and bringing his proofes onely in writing he said that his informations were but Paper and Inke and perhaps forged and that a man ought not to be condemned but by honest and substantiall witnesses and therefore he sent Aper to Rufus Gouernour of Macedonia from whence he was brought commanding him diligently to examine the witnesses against him and to see that they were honest and of good name King Edgar of England had likewise that care to doe Iustice as in Winter time he would ride vp and downe the Countrey and make enquiry of the misdemeanors of his Officers and Gouernours and punish them seuerely that offended the Law And as the followers of Iustice shall not onely be famous in this world but shall perpetually liue and receiue a kingdome of glory in the world to come as saith Salomon Sap. 5. So the Princes that minister iniustice and do not iudge rightly shall reape infamy and incurre the high displeasure of Almighty God as Salomon also witnesseth saying Hearken O Kings and vnderstand learne you who are Judges of the bounds of the earth in respect that power is giuen vnto you from aboue and strength from the Highest who will examine your works and search your thoughts and because when you were Ministers in his Kingdome you did not iudge rightly nor iudge rightly nor keepe the Law of Iustice nor walke in the way of God he will appeare vnto you quickely and horribly for most rigorous iudgement is done vnto those that gouerne With the poore and meane man mercy is vsed but mighty men shall suffer torments mightily Sap. 6. And the royall Prophet saith that God is terrible to the Kings of the earth Psal 75. Which doth very well appeare by the strange punishments
Bajazet Their Generall was the Earle of Neuers who against the will of the King of Hungary and of all the Campe gaue the first charge and without order and was ouer-throwne whereupon the Army of the Christians fled Anno 1396. by reason whereof the Turk tooke al Greece and the greatest part of Bulgaria and then besieged Constantinople And it is also very requisite that the Generall should keep his souldiers from idlenesse for Segnities robur frangit longa otianeruos Sloath weakneth the sinewes and diminisheth a mans force and is the nurse of all vice making a man most base Therefore Aeleas a King of Scythia sayd that hee thought himselfe no better then his Horse-keeper when hee was idle A vice to which Gentlemen alwayes haue beene too much giuen Insomuch that in Athens where they did not suffer the people to be idle a Citizen being iudicially condemned for idlenesse one Herondas requested one to shew him the party that was condemned for a Gentle-mans life In Carthage to auoyde this vice the Noble-men did alwayes exercise Armes the common people laboured and the Learned men were euer teaching and instructing others And in the Common-wealth of the Lacedemonians none were idle for all men laboured and they sending one Chilon to Corinthe to treate of a League hee found the Magistrates idlely exercised playing at Dice whereuppon hee returned home and would not speake of his Commission saying That hee would not stayne the glory of Sparta with so great an ignominy as to ioyne them in society with such kinde of people Marius caused his souldiers to make Trenches when there was no cause onely to keepe them from idlenesse Claudius hauing an assured peace for the avoyding of idlenesse kept thirty thousand men twelue yeares in working the Channell Fucinus that Rome might haue good water And when the Lawes were well kept in Rome at the time they had Warres with the Celtiberians in Spaine and with Alexander the Senators went three dayes about Rome with the Censors and could not find one idle man for a messenger to carry their letters But in Marcus Aurelius time there were plenty for he confesseth that hee banished punished and put to death in his time 30000. idle Vagabonds and 10000. idle women And France being troubled with a great number of idle vagabond souldiers Bertrand de Guesclin to free the Countrey of them drew them all to goe with him into Spaine agaynst the Sarazins Bruce King of Scotland exhorted his subiects to exercise Armes alwayes for that idlenesse would corrupt them and for want of practise they would not be able to resist their enemies A Prince therefore being the Lanterne to his subiects should giue good example herein Alfred King of England had that care to eschew idlenesse and to spend his time well as he diuided the day into three parts by a Taper that burned continually in his Chappel 24. houres The first part he spent in Prayer and in study The second part hee employed in the affaires of the Common-wealth and the third part he tooke for his recreation and rest A good president for other Princes CHAP. 26. A Prince to be well aduised before hee begin Warre and carefull in his fight IT is not for a Prince vpon euery quarrell to make War but to be sure that the cause bee good and iust which then wil bring honor to his Person safety to his soule and great encouragement to all his souldiers Yet according to the saying of Octauius Caesar neyther battell nor War is to be vndertaken vnlesse there may be euidently seene more hope of gayne then feare of damage for such as sought after the smallest commodities not with a little danger he likened vnto those that Angle with a golden hooke for the losse whereof if it hapned to be suapped or broken off no draught of Fish whatsoeuer was able to make amends And it is necessary that a Prince or his Generall should consult and take counsell before hee fight for the aduice of his Captaynes heerein may doe great good Therefore the Carthagintans commaunded those Captaynes to be hanged that got Victory without any consultation before And those that did first consult and then were ouer-throwne they did neuer punish And hauing taken counsell and resolution execution is to follow without delay least occasion be lost For Aristotle sayth that a wise man ought to counsell slowly and execuâ—e speedily and if Victory be gotten to follow it hotly is the best before the enemy being discouraged be able to make head agayne For if Hanniball had done so after the battell of Cannas and not lingred to refresh his men he had taken Rome Likewise Pompey in a skirmish put Caesar to the worse which if he had pursued he had quite ouer-throwne Caesar Yet a man must take heed he follow not the Victory too fiercely nor out of order For so Phillip King of Macedonta by following the Romanes too fiercely was defeated So likewise Gaston de Foix hauing wonne the battell at Rauenna pursuing too fiercely a squadron of Spaniards that fled by them was ouer-throwne lost his life and made all that a prey to the enemy which before hee had Conquered in Italy And an enemy is not to be contemned though his Forces be inferiour for oftentimes it is not the multitude of men that getteth the Victory but the couragious and resolute mindes of the fouldiers assisted by God For King Alexander with 33000. foote-men and 25000. horse-men ouer-threw the Persians and Darius army of 400000. foot-men and 100000. horse-men Robert le Frison with a few and without experience defeated Phillip King of Frances great Army and old Souldiers The Earle of Namure with the Flemings being but a few ouer-thre the Earle of Artois sent by Phillip the fayre King of France with 40000. French-men into Flanders whereof 300. efcaped not At the battell of Peitiers the Prince of Wales with 8000. English ouerthrow 40000. French tooke King Iohn and his Sonne prisoners and also a number of Princes and Noble-men Henry the fifth at the battell of Agincourt with 7000 ouer-threw 80000. French Simon Earle of Monford besieged in the Castle of Mirebeau in France by the King of Arragon and others and hauing with him but 2. Knights 60. horse-men and 700. foot-men hauing commended themselues to God sallied and charged the King so valiently that he ouerthrew his Army killed him and 17000. of his men and lost not aboue eight foot-men of all his Therefore a Prince should not presume too much of his owne strength nor be carelesse of his enemy nor charge him but in good order For fighting without order the Carpentines Olcades and Vaceos in Spaine hauing an Army of 100000. were ouer-throwne by Hanniball for they trusted in the number of their Souldiers and kept no order Both the Scipioes being slayne in Spaine Lucius Martius being a man of meane calling yet a good Souldier and of great courage gathered the dispersed souldiers together and was chosen for their