Discuss the themes of Virtu and Fortuna in The Prince. Essay -- Englis

Discuss the themes of Virtu and Fortuna in The Prince.Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy on the 3rd May 1469.In 1498, Florence became a republic and Machiavelli gained a position within the Florentine government. After this he was soon confirmed bythe great council as the second chancellor of the republic, making himthe head of internal affairs. Less than a month later he was electedas secretary to the ten of war, which focussed on foreign anddefensive affairs.In November 1498 Machiavelli was sent on his outset diplomatic missionand over the historic period he continued with many more. On his first missionto France to see King Louis XII, which lasted six months, Machiavelliwas able to continue the effects of having a single prince ruling aunited country.When Machiavelli returned to Florence and he found it to be slowlydisintegrating because Cesare Borgia endeavoured to create aprincipality for himself in Italy and during this duration Machiavellimade many visits to h im on behalf of the Florentine government to tryand negotiate. When Borgia finally retaliated by killing his captainsin Sinigaglia, Machiavelli was witness to this and later wrote anaccount of it.Machiavelli had a dissever of admiration for Borgias conduct and believedhis qualities would be found in the perfect prince who wouldeventually unite all the Italian states.Over the next few years Machiavelli maintained his position within theFlorentine government and was sent on various missions and given manydifferent roles with increasing amounts of authority over Florence. In1513 Machiavelli is accused of being involved in an anti-Mediciconspiracy with the Medici family being rulers of Florence at thetime. Machiavel... ...t rule aprincipality. And also the book has visions of wanting to uniteItaly, which is an idea 350 years ahead of its time. When Machiavelliwrote this book it was write for the time as there were frequent warsand some advice on the art of war was needed. Even though , in manycases, Machiavellis the Prince is still relevant today particularlyin government, as if you want to succeed and gain power in it, youneed to be ruthless and corrupted.BibliographyMachiavelli, N. (2003) The Prince. capital of the United Kingdom Penguin GroupSolomon, R, C., Higgins, K, M., (1996). A short history of Philosophy.Oxford Oxford University Press.Skinner, Q. (2000) Machiavelli A very short Introduction. OxfordOxford University Press.www.constitution.org/mac/prince00/html - another translation of ThePrince.Machiavelli, Niccolo. Microsoft Encarta 99 Encyclopedia.