Note 139 — MAXIMILIAN I (continued 2)

Opere iv. 174. See also dissertation by Rösemeier, Machiavelli's Erste Legation zum K. Maximilian I., mid seine drei Schriften über Deutschland. In the main, Machiavelli blames Maximilian, 1st, for his openhandedness; and, as undecided, credulous, and all the more dependent on others, in that he tries not to be. But he qualifies his strictures by saying, "the Emperor is a great general; he bears fatigue like the most hardened soldiers; he is brave in danger and just in governing. When he grants an audience, he is patient and gracious, and is a pattern of many princely virtues." Vettori is not quite so severe—"none can deny," he says, "that he (Max) is wise and circumspect, skilful and untiring in war, and widely experienced. He possesses the confidence of the nation more than any of his predecessors for more than a hundred years; but he is so amiable and kind-hearted, that it makes him yielding and credulous"—quoted Janssen, i. 595. Ludovico Ticiano is less critical when he declares, that "on no general can the soldier rely more implicitly, from none can he expect more boldness in the courting of perils and more skill in meeting them; nor can the burgher wish for any juster or milder prince, or one in whom justness and mildness are so equally poised"—quoted Geiger, p. 346.