Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, writer, dramatist, and poet of the Renaissance period. 

Often called the father of modern political philosophy, he was for many years a senior official in the Republic of Florence with responsibility for diplomatic and military affairs.

He served as secretary to the second counsellor of the republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512. He wrote his most famous work “The Prince” in 1513, after being exiled from city affairs.  

Machiavelli was born on May 3rd, 1469 in Florence, Italy. He was the third child and first son of the lawyer Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli and his wife Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli. Later Machiavelli married Marietta Corsini in 1502

Machiavelli was never a full citizen of Florence. 

Machiavelli was born in a turbulent era where the Popes were waging wars against the Italian city-states.

People and their cities often fell from power as France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire fought for influence and control of the region. 

Machiavelli studied rhetoric and Latin language. In 1494, Florence revolutionized the government into a republic and expelled the Medici dynasty that had ruled Florence for about 60 years.

Shortly after, Machiavelli was appointed to the office of second chancellor, an office that made Machiavelli responsible for the production of official Florentine government documents. 

And after that, he was also appointed as a secretary of the dieci di libertà e pace.

In the first decade of the 16th century Machiavelli conducted several diplomatic missions, particularly in the Papal Rome. While he was in Rome from 1502 to 1503, he witnessed the brutal realities of the way the city-state was developed by Cesare Borgia and his father, Pope Alexander the Sixth.

Between 1503 and 1506 Machiavelli was in charge of the Florentine militia. While it was under his command, the Florentine mix of soldiers and ordinary citizens was able to defeat Pisa in 1509. 

However, Machiavelli's success was not to last. In August 1512, the Medici, supported by Pope Julius the 2nd, used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Pratu.