Cesare Borgia: An example in The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

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In The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli considers Cesare Borgia to be perfect example for princes or whomever, to follow if they wish to apprehend how to secure and strengthen their principalities. Cesare Borgia, for Machiavelli, is an ideal lesson of a prince who had great prowess, gained his principality through good fortune by his father Pope Alexander VI, showed continuous actions by his efforts to secure his state quickly, and then lost it to adverse fortune, which led to his fall and death. Machiavelli uses many events of Cesare Borgia’s to show how and why he was successful, and should me imitated as a model of prudence by ambitious princes.
Cesare Borgia, also called Duke Valentino, was named Duke of Romagna by his father, Pope Alexander VI. Borgia came into power through the arms and fortune of others, and according to Machiavelli, that is not a good sign because those rulers tend to not last very long. But Borgia showed tremendous efforts to make sure he would stay in power by strengthening his foundations, even when his father was no longer the Pope. He was able to conquer th...

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