The name of this prince was Lorenzo Donato, a prince from Florence,
Italy. He died January 6th, 1489, and was 59 when he died. He
appears to have died of Typhoid fever in his home. Presumably, the prince
thought he would sleep it off, but ended up not waking up one morning.



               
Prince Lorenzo Donato was born April 15th, 1430 and lived his entire life in
Florence. His parents were named Piero Donato and Catalina Donato, maiden name
Fonte. Lorenzo’s childhood consisted of heavy schooling, instigated by his
  father, and very few friends. Being the only son his father had, he needed to
  be prepared to follow in his father’s footsteps as a great Florentine prince.
  When he grew up he married a woman from Genoa named Lucia Cellini, whom he met
  when he was learning how to handle foreign relationships with his father in the
  city. They were married on November 22nd, 1448 in Florence when Lorenzo was 18.
From this point forward is when his career began to take off. Shortly after
marrying his wife, he designed a plan to become the pope’s number two. With his
large estate and soldiers that are loyal to him, Prince Donato planned to make a
power play to impress the pope while claiming more land for his estate. His plan
was solid, and would have worked marvelously; he even had begun making some
foreign relationships of his own by trading for alum with a prince from Venice
named Niccolo d-Este. Unfortunately, Lorenzo Donato’s plan fell apart because
there was very little area for him to expand his estate after a while. By the
time he had gotten this plan of his into motion, there had been many more people
changing their ways of life from serving under an oligarchy to wanting to decide
how their lives are run on their own. Eventually, the plan for expansion ceased
all at once.


               
Lorenzo Donato and his wife lived in a villa on his father’s estate from
the time they were married. During that time, they had three sons, Carlo,
Giorgio, and Matteo. After Lorenzo’s death, times had changed in Florence, and
each of his sons had left Venice to pursue their own lives. Carlo always wanted
to go into the city and look at the art that were hung in churches and around
the city, so he became an artist and lived in Venice. Giorgio, who was strong
and good with his hands, studied engineering and worked on projects himself in
the ever-growing city of Rome. Lorenzo’s oldest son, Matteo, did not want to
  completely abandon his father’s ideas of growing to a position of being a
  respected family by the pope, so he traveled throughout Italy enhancing his
education and eventually one day rise up to the position of pope himself.
Giorgio is the only one who had children, one son and one daughter, but they
grew up under poor conditions and their lineage became lost.



               
Lorenzo’s last words that were recorded on paper were “I may have failed
my father, and I may have failed myself, but my children can learn from my
mistakes and prosper in their own way.” These words may have been what caused
his children to leave Florence and pursue lives away from power and authority
because of how their father and their father’s father had turned out. Lorenzo
Donato’s life was uneventful and disappointing, but it was also practical. Like
many great rulers, Lorenzo became a leader while trying to fulfill his father’s
wishes. He may not be remembered among some of the more notable rulers of his
time, such as the pope or heads of the Medici family, but he is not much
different from them, and should be remembered by those that have heard of him as
a prince who is not much different from those great
rulers.

                After reading a book titled The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli I have decided to rethink some of the ways I act as a prince of my estate. There were some strong points that were mentioned that I do agree with, such as seizing every opportunity you can to make a display of your giving to be known as a generous man. Another topic I agreed with is that you need to be able to take control of situations involving battles against other armies. There were a few points that I disagreed with as well, such as how to go about being considered more merciful than feared. Not so much the premise of  being loved rather than feared, but the way Machiavelli wrote princes should achieve that status, by only being harsh when absolutely necessary. Also, a prince should always keep his word, regardless of whether it goes against his interests or not. A man who is a prince and is in control of one or multiple estates should always be sure not to go back on his word because that would make me seem unreliable. Overall I have to say that I agree with the general idea that Machiavelli presents about how princes should act towards their subjects, but there are a few things that do not make sense to me. As for myself, I may end up changing the way I act in accordance with some of the topics from The Prince. 

            Currently, I am the owner of a large estate and live off the taxes I put on the people who live on my estate.  I work for the pope and he makes sure I live very well as long as I pay him a portion of what I earn from my estate. I also have soldiers that are very loyal to me because I pay them very well for their services. I would consider them my own private army, but because I am loyal to the pope, my soldiers must also be loyal to the pope. I would like to extend the territory of my land that I own and gain a higher position among the ranks under the pope. This would allow me to be more respected as a leader of the people and get me closer to the pope and gain me more power. I would like for my family to be as happy as possible and to live their lives lavishly, which can be done if I achieve these political goals I have set for myself. Hopefully I will beable to remain at this high standpoint of power for many generations to come.

            My plan to reach these goals is a solid, but lengthy method, so it will take time to reach the standpoint that I want to be at. I plan to expand my estate so that I become more wealthy thereby gaining more respect from the higher-ups. Also, by owning more land I will gain more money and be able to buy more commoditites for either my estate or for myself. One way I will do this is by buying allum from a man in Venice named Niccolo d-Este. This will allow me to dye the fine cloth I collect as part of my tax on my estate. I will then be able to sell the dyed cloth or have it turned into other things to sell or show off in my own home. This will allow the people in higher positions of power notice the amount of progress I have made in this relavitely short amount of time.

            My next step in completing my plan is to be patient and earn the money to buy more estate from the church. More land will mean more profit and less work for me later on when I have to trade with my allies such as Niccolo d-Este and when I buy commoditites for myself and my estates.

            My name is Lorenzo Donato and I am a prince from Florence, Italy. My wife and I, Lucia, have three boys named Carlo, Giorgio, and Matteo. Our family is a very religious Christian family who goes to church every Sunday and read from the bible. When we come home we check on production of the cloth from the land that we own. The land we own is inhabited by many peasants and knights who work on the land and make some of the finest cloth in Florence. Like most royal families, I live off of what those that live on my land earn. This allows me to continue to support my family and build new structures on my estate. For example, my villa is very extravagant in design and architecture. My villa has a circular courtyard surrounded by arched hallways. Through each hallway is an open white-walled room with windows facing out on the nearby landscape.

Like my own children, I had a very strict teacher. My teacher made us write and recite Latin poems and texts every day so that we would memorize them. We also reviewed the studies of philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. There was also a great deal of physical activity for those boys that did not plan on going into the military such as ball games, archery, fencing and swimming. My personal favorite sport was archery, and I am still quite good at it, but my sons’ favorite sport is fencing. They will eventually go off and have jobs and family of their own and, with their prestigious education, will be very successful in their profession.