Niccolo Machiavelli
1469 – 1527 Italian political philosopher, writer
The founder of modern political science, author of The Prince.
- Religion
- Nominally Catholic, but he treated religion as a political tool and was accused of impiety.
- Affiliations
- Florentine diplomat and official. No secret society.
Machiavelli analyzed power as it is rather than as it ought to be, arguing that rulers must sometimes act ruthlessly to hold the state. The Prince broke political thought free of medieval moralism. His name became a byword for cunning, but he founded realist political science.
In the timeline
- 1513 Machiavelli writes The Prince mentioned