According to Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince there is only one thing that is a prince’s greatest ally: the people. He who has the loyalty or respect of the people will be able to keep his position longer than those who do not have it (Machiavelli 45). A prince cannot avoid the people because there are so many of them but he can avoid the nobles because there are so few. This means that in order to stay in power, he would have to listen to the people and satisfy them before satisfying anyone of greater importance (Machiavelli 46). A prince would also need to show courage, dignity, power, and greatness (Machiavelli 86). This would ensure that the people will believe in him and be ready to fight for his cause. As long as the masses are in favor of the prince, the conspirators will be too afraid to denounce the prince (Machiavelli 87). If it is impossible to win over the people, then he would need to strive to avoid the hatred of the more powerful faction (Machiavelli 90). As long as the prince does not take away the land of his subjects and their women, then he should be able to win the citizens. They are more likely to forgive if their father was killed, but less likely if their land or woman was taken from them. An army of a prince’s own people is much stronger than any other army. Mercenaries fight halfheartedly because they are only in it for the money. An auxiliary army is commanded by some other powerful person and this army would likely to turn on the prince the moment they saw victory (Machiavelli 57). Both of these armies have no reason to fight like the subjects of their prince.
The strongest prince is that which commands his subjects’ loyalty or in the least, their desire to fight for him. For without his people, a prince has no position of power. The masses of people can easily bring about the ruin of their prince. Because of this there are extremely important and are the prince’s greatest ally.
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