The Borgia Model
Why Machiavelli made Cesare Borgia his model prince, and what the Borgia story reveals about fortune, skill, and failure.
The Meteoric Rise
Cesare Borgia was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, and in the space of just four years (1499-1503), he carved out a personal principality in the Romagna region of central Italy. His method was a masterclass in the combination of force, fraud, and political calculation that Machiavelli would later codify as the essential skills of a new prince.
Borgia used his father's papal authority to legitimize his campaigns, French military support to provide the muscle, and his own considerable intelligence to manage the politics. He deposed local tyrants, installed loyal governors, established courts of justice, and brought order to a region that had been notoriously lawless. Machiavelli, who observed Borgia's operations firsthand during his diplomatic missions in 1502-1503, was struck by how Borgia combined ruthlessness with administrative competence.
The most famous episode was Borgia's handling of his lieutenant Remirro de Orco. Borgia had appointed de Orco to pacify the Romagna with brutal efficiency — and de Orco succeeded, but at the cost of making himself hated by the population. Borgia then had de Orco executed and his body displayed in the public square, simultaneously satisfying the people's desire for justice and distancing himself from the cruelty he had authorized. Machiavelli recounted this episode with undisguised admiration.