The Prince of Machiavelli

Machiavelli is an unusual book for us, but it was within a recognised genre. He wants to understand the secrets of statecraft which he thinks were available in antiquity. The Florentines' traditional allies of the French are then threatened with the sack of their entire territories and they give in. Some of Machiavelli's more aristocratic friends survive into the Medician regime. But after being mistakenly believed to have taken part in an anti-Medician plot immediately after they were brought back,. So he's imprisoned and he's dreadfully tortured; only at the beginning of 1513 when there's an amnesty, because Medici becomes Pope, does Machiaveelli get released