On monarchy with public support

A king who comes to power with the help of the rich nobles will have more trouble keeping it than the king who gets there with the support of the people, because he is surrounded by men who considers themselves his equals, and that will make it hard for him to give them orders or to manage affairs as he wants.

But a man coming to power with the support of the common people holds it alone and has no one, or hardly anyone, around him who is unwilling to obey. What’s more, you can’t in good faith give the nobles what they want without doing harm to others, but you can with the people. Because the people’s aspirations are more honourable than the nobles: the nobles want to oppress the people, while the people want to be free from oppression.

What’s more, a king can never be safe if the common people are hostile to him, because there are so many of them, but he can protect himself against the nobles, since there are not so many.

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A man who becomes king with the support of the people, then, must keep those people on his side. This is easy enough since all they want is to be free from oppression.

-Niccoló Machiavelli on monarchy with public support