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Law 11: Learn To Keep People Dependent On You
The 48 Laws Of Power Summary Series
Judgement
“To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.”
Transgression Of The Law
Sometime in the Middle Ages, a mercenary soldier (also known as condottiere), whose name has not been recorded, saved the town of Siena from a foreign aggressor.
The city was extremely grateful for this act, however no amount of money or honor could possibly compare in value to the preservation of a city’s liberty. The people thought of making him the lord, they said that wasn’t enough to recompense him. At last, one of them stood before the assembly and called to debate to this matter exclaiming, “Let us kill him and then worship him as our patron saint.” And so they did.
In another short story, The Count of Carmagnola was one of the bravest and most successful of all the condottieri. He served the city of Venice and eventually found himself convicted on some trumped-up charge where he was eventually beheaded before a horrified crowd who could not understand how his fate had changed so drastically.
Interpretation
Reading stories like these make me appreciate how thankful I am for living in this century. Our modern day ‘condottieres’ come in the form of military heroes and do not find the same fate of past condottieres, instead they are celebrated and praised, rightfully so. Many of the great condottieri of Renaissance Italy suffered the same fate as the patron saint…
