Machiavelli's Letter To Lorenzo Medici

Machiavelli's "Prince" is a unique historical work, as a letter written to Lorenzo Medici, but most of the work is meant for anyone who is able to understand. While the book was meant to serve as a guide for what characteristics the ideal ruler of a country would hold, he also hoped that the letter would bring him back in favor of the Medici's who had previous exiled him. Machiavelli never dictates what or who the ideal prince is, but he continually offers examples and advice, which is often immoral and unethical, on how someone would become the ideal prince. Machiavelli was naturally pessimistic about the human race, and that heavily influenced this work, with negative connotations flowing freely.
One of the first suggestions Machiavelli makes in the book is that it is much easier if the prince is taking over a new principality due to heredity. The "subjects" will transition much easier because they are accustomed to how the rest of the family has ruled. However, if a the new ruler has gained his position through hard work and virtu, if people
Petrarch felt that a ruler needed to be mature, so that "no rumor, no hint of rebellion disturbed the city" (10.1 Petrarch: Rules For The Ruler). Petrarch said that citizens needed to feel secure and free, and that no innocent blood should be spilled, unnecessarily. Petrarch's premier quality in his "ideal prince" is that he should be more or less friendly to good citizens and "terrifying" (10.1 Petrarch: Rules For The Ruler) to evil citizens, therefore he is a friend of justice. He says that each person should be given his due so that no one is "punished unfairly" (10.1 Petrarch: Rules For The Ruler). Petrarch also believed that a good prince should want for his citizens what he would want for his own children. But Machiavelli doesn't agree with this saying that men "love at their convenience, but fear the convenience of their prince" (The Prince, p.