The works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel, citizen and secretary of Florence written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English.

THE STATE OF GERMANY IN An Abridgment written by Nicolo Machiavelli, Secretary of FLORENCE.

OF the power of Germany no body can doubt, because it a bounds so exceedingly in Men, and Money, and Arms. As to its wealth, there is not a Free Town in the whole Country, but has a publick stock aforehand of its own; and some say Argentina (Strasburg) alone has a Million of Florens constantly in bank. The reason of their opulence is because they have nothing to exhaust them, but their Fortifications, and furnishing their Magazines (for reparations, and recruits cost them but little.) In the latter they have a very good way, for they have always in their publick Stores, Meat and Drink, and Firing for a Twelve-month: Besides, to entertain the industry of their people, they have wherewithal to set the poor on work, in case of any Siege, a compleat year together, so as they may subsist upon their own labour, without being burthensom to the Town. Their Souldiers are but little expence to them for they are always well arm'd, and well exercised; and on their Festival days, instead of the Com∣mon recreations, one takes his Musket, another his Pike, one one sort of Arms, another another, and practising among themselves, they grow very ready and dexterous; and after they are arrived at some degree of perfection, they have certain Honours and Salaries conferred upon them, which is the greatest part of their charge. So that in every free Town the publick Treasury is rich.

The reason likewise why the private persons are rich, is this because they live with great parsimony, and indeed little better than if they were poor; for they are at no expence in their Clothes, their Buildings, nor the furnishing of their Houses. If they have bread, and flesh, and any thing to keep them from the cold, they are well enough; and he that wants them, is contented, and makes some shift or other without them. Two Florens will serve them in Clothes ten years; and according to his degree every man lives at this rate; they do not trouble themselves for every thing they want, but only for those things that are absolutely necessary, and by that means their necessities are much fewer than ours: The result of which Custom is this, their Mony goes not out of their County, they con∣tenting themselves with their own Native productions, whil'st in the mean time every man is permitted to bring in what Treasure he pleases into Germany, to purchase their Commo∣dities and Manufactures which in a manner supplies all Italy; and their gain is so much the more, by how much a small part of the profit of their labours, recruits them with Materials for new.

Thus do they live at liberty, and enjoy their own humors; for which reason they will not be got to the Wars, but upon extraordinary pay and that will not do it neither, un∣less they be commanded by their own Magistrates; Wherefore an Emperor has need of more Mony, than another Prince, because if men be in a good condition already, they are not easily allured to the Wars.

As things stand now, the free States must unite with the Princes, before any great ex∣ploit can be undertaken by the Emperor; or else they must enterprize it themselves, which they would be able to do. But neither the one nor the other desires the greatness of the Emperor; for if ever he should get those Free States into his hands, he should be strong enough to overpower the Princes, and reduce them to such a degree of subjection, that he would manage them as he pleased himself, as the Kings of France have done formerly in that Country, and particularly King Lewis, who by force of Arms, and the cutting off some few Persons brought them to their present obedience. The same thing would happen to the States, if the Princes should be cajoled, they would lose their freedoms, be wholly at the disposition of the Emperor, and be forced to be satisfied with what he would vouchsafe to afford them. The distance and division betwixt the free States and the Princes, is sup∣posed to proceed from the different humors in that Country, which in general are two; The Swissers are become Enemies to all Germany, and the Princes to the Emperor. It may seem strange perhaps, that the Swissers, and free States should be at variance and enmity, seeing the preservation of their liberty, and securing themselves against the Princes, is the common interest of both: But their discord is from this, that the Swissers are not only Ene∣mies to the Princes, but to all Gentlemen whatever, and in their Country, they have nei∣ther the one, nor the other; but live without distinction of persons (unless in their Magi∣strates) in the most levelling liberty in the world. This practice of the Swissers makes all the Gentlemen which are remaining in any of the free Towns afraid of them; so that they employ their whole industry in keeping their States at a distance with them, and preventing any intelligence betwixt them. Moreover all of those States who have been Soldiers, and had their Education in the Wars, are mortally their Enemies moved thereunto by Emu∣lation and Envy, because they themselves are not so famous abroad, and their animosity is so great, that they never meet in the sield (let their numbers be small, or great) but they fall together by the Ears.

As to the Enmity betwixt the Princes, and the free Towns, and the Swissers, I need say no more, it being so generally known; as likewise of the jealousies betwixt the Emperor and the Princes. You must understand, that the Emperors principal apprehension is of the Princes, and not being able to correct them alone, he has made use of the assistance of these free States, and not long since, entertained the Swissers into his allyance, by whose means he thought himself in a very good condition. So that these common dissentions being con∣sidered, and the particular piques and suspicions betwixt one Prince, and one State and another; it is no easie matter to unite the Empire; and yet it is necessary it should be uni∣ted, before any great thing can be performed by the Emperor. And though he who believes Germany in a condition to do great things, because there is visibly no Prince who has the power, or indeed the courage to oppose the designs of the Emperor, as formerly has been done, yet he must know that it is a great impediment to an Emperor not to be assisted by those Princes, for though perhaps a Prince dares not contend with him, he dares deny him his assistance; and if he dares not deny him that, he dares break his promise upon occasion, and if he dares not do that, will at least mak so bold to deferr and delay the performance so long, that when his supplies do come, they shall do the Emperor no good; all which things do infinitely disturb, and embarras his designs. And this was found to be true, when the Emperor would the first time have passed into Italy, in spight both of the French and the Venetian; in a dyet held at that time in Constance, he was promised by the several Free States in Germany a supply of ... thousand Foot, and 3000 Horse, yet he could never get of them together above 5000, and that because by that time the Forces of one State came up; another was ready to depart, their time being expired and some sent Mony in lieu; upon which score that Enterprize was lost.

The strength of Germany consists in the free Towns rather, than in the Princes; for the Princes are of two sorts, Temporal and Spiritual. The Temporal Princes are brought very low, partly by themselves (every Principality, being cantonized and distributed to several Princes by constitution of their inheritances which are observed very strictly in those Countries) and partly having been much weakned by the Emperor and his assistance from the said States; so that now the amity of the Temporal Princes, is of little importance. There are likewise Spiritual Princes, whose Territories, if not cantonized and divided by those Hereditary Customs, are yet so weakned and enervated by the ambition of their own free Towns, and the favour that the Emperor showes them, that the Electoral Archbishops, and the rest have little or no power in the great and chief Towns of their own Dominions; from whence it comes to pass, that being divided at home, they cannot favour the Enter∣prizes of the Emperor, though they would themselves. But to come to the Free, and the Imperial Towns, which are the strength of that Country, as being rich, and well-govern'd.

Those Towns for several reasons, are grown cooler in the assertion of their Liberties, and much more in the acquisition of new, and that which they do not desire for themselves, they do not care another should have. Besides they are so many; and every one to be comman∣ded by a General of their own, that their supplies, when they are disposed to send them, come but very slow, and when they do come, are not so useful as they should be, and of this we had an Example not many years since. The Swissers invaded the State of Maxi∣milian, and Suevia: The Emperor contracted with the Free Towns to repell them, and they obliged themselves to assist him with an Army of 14000 Men, but he never got half of them, and the reason was as abovesaid, when the Forces of one Town came up, another marched off, insomuch that the Emperor dispairing of success, came to an agreement with the Swissers, and left Basil in their possession. And if in this case, where their own interest was concerned, they have acted at this rate, it may be guessed how they will behave them∣selves in the concerns of other men; so that all these things laid together, though their power be great, yet it can turn but to little accompt to the Emperor. And the Venetians by their conversation and Commerce with the Merchants of Germany, in all their Transa∣ctions hitherto with the Emperor, have understood him better than any body else, and dealt more honourably by him; for had they been in any apprehension of his power, they would have insisted upon some caution, either by way of Mony or Towns; and if they had seen any possibility of uniting the whole power of the Empire, they would never have opposed it: But knowing that to be impossible, it made them the more con••ident, and gave them hopes of success. If therefore in a single City, the affairs of the multitude are negligently managed, in a Province they will be much worse. Moreover those little States are sensible, that an acquisition in Italy, or elsewhere, would fall to the Princes, and not to them, be∣cause they might enjoy them personally, which could not be done by a Common-wealth, and where the reward is like to be unequal, people will not willingly be at an equal expence. Their power therefore is great, but of little importance, and he who peruses what has been said before, and considers what was been done for several years past, will sind how little it is to be rely'd upon.

The German Men at Arms are well mounted, and many of them well enough arm'd, but their Horses are heavy and unactive, and it is to be observed that in their Encounters with the Italians or French, they can do nothing at all, not for any fault in the Men, but the accoutrement of their Horses, for their Saddles being little, and weak, and without bows, every little jostle tumbuls them upon the ground: and another of their great disadvantages is, that the lower part of their bodies are never arm'd whereby not being able to defend against the first impression (in which the excellence of those Soldiers consist) they lie ex∣posed (upon the close) to the short Swords of the Enemy, and may be wounded both themselves and Horses in those disarmed places, and it is in the power of every Foot man to pull them off on their Horses, and rip their Guts out when they have done, and then as to the manage of their Horses they are too heavy to do any thing at all.

Their Foot are very good, and very personable men, contrary to the Swiss, who are but small, rough hewn, and not handsome at all: But they arm themselves (unless it be some few) only with a Pike and a Sword, that they might be the more dexterous, and nimble, and light; and their saying used to be, that they arm themselves no better, because they feared nothing but the Artillery against which no Breast-plate, or croslet, or Gorget would secure them: other weapons they despise; for it is said their order is so good, and they stand so firm to one another 'tis impossible to break into them nor come near them if their Pikes be long enough. They are excellent in a Field sight, but for the storming of a Town they are good for nothing; and but little to defend one: and generally where the Men cannot keep their old orders and manage themselves with room enough, they are worth but little: Of this experience has been seen where they have been engaged with the Italians, or assaulted any Town, as at Padua where they came off very ill, though on the other side, in the Field they had done well enough. For in the Battel of Ravenna, betwixt the French and the Spaniards, if it had not been for their Lanceknights, the French had been beaten; for whil'st the Men at Arms were confronted, and engaged with one another, the Spanish had the better of the French, and had disordered their Gascoigns, so that had not the Ger∣mans came in and relieved them, they had been utterly broken: and the same was seen lately when the Spanish King made War upon the French in Guienna, the Spaniards were more fearful of a Body of 10000 German Foot, which the King of France had in his Service than all the rest of his Army, therefore they declined coming to a Battel with all the Art they could use.