La Principessa

Normal ponies that have become a Princess by the grace of Fortuna will find little hardships in their ascend but many afterwards, trying to stay in power. It concerns those to whom the land is gifted in exchange for mony or services, like many Princess in the earthpony lands who where put there by the will of Darius to keep the cities safe and prosperous. This was also the case with empresses who gained power by buying soldiers(1).

Princesses like these are dependent on the good will and power of those that put them in that position, two things that are very fickle and unstable. The are not able to rule the land with wisdom or power; not with wisdom because they, having formerly been normal ponies, are not able to properly lead anypony; not with power because no troops are dependent on or loyal to them. A power that has come existence suddenly has, like all things in nature, not rooted properly and can be uprooted by the first storm. This rule only does not apply if those that have come in power posses the qualities to immediately take such measures to keep that what has been given to them by luck, and are somehow able to lay down the base for their power after they have gained it like others do before they come in such a position.

I want to explore these to ways to gain power with two contemporary examples, the cases of Princess Sforza and prince blueblood. Sforza became a Princess through her own power and personal strenght. What she had achieved through great hardships, she was able to keep without any. Blueblood on the other hand, owed his land to the position of his mother, and lost it due to that same position. This despite him taking any possible precaution and doing everything  an intelligent and energetic pony is required to get grip on a land that she has gained by luck and the weapons of others. If you haven’t layed the basis for your power before you gaine it is is possible to do so afterwards with great personal effort. Well, when examining the actions of the prince one comes to the conclusion he has layed strong bases for his future position. A more in-depth research doesn’t seem necessary to me seeing as I can not give better advice to a new Princess than those that are modelled after the endeavors of prince Blueblood. And if these do not bring her succes than it won’t be her fault bet hat of the cruelty of fortune.

The Papal Princess encountered many a problem in her endeavor to make her son great. In the first place she couldn’t make him  a ruler of a land not belonging to the church. And she knew that neither the sea ponies or the Princess of Milan would allow her to give him land that did belong to the church. Because ponyville and manehattan were still under the protection of Venice at the time(2). She also knew that the armies of Equestria where under control of those that feared her power wich meant she could not trust them. They where under the control of the Pants(3) and their allies. Therefore it was required for her to disrupt the political status of equestria at the time and diminish the power of these groups in order to conquer it. This was easy to her because the seaponies for their own reasons chose that time to bring the French in their country(4), the Papal Princess encouraged this by allowing Louis to divorce her previous husband and remarry for the unifying of the Principalities(5).

So Louis came into Equestria thanks to Faust and the Venitians, she was barely in Milan or the Papal Princess provided her with troops to conquer Romagna. However when blueblood(6) had conquered Romagna and wanted to keep it and have it grow two things stood in his way, the questionable loyalty of his troops and the questionable grace of his Princess, Louis. He feared that the armies of Pants, wich he had hired, would betray him and rob him of his conquests or that, if they didn’t the Princess of France would. He started doubting the loyalty of the Pants’ troops when he, after taking manehattan, attacked Bologna and saw that the were very reluctant to fight for him. The benevolence of the Princess was disproved when he, after conquering Urbino, wanted to take Tuscany because Louis stopped him. This was why he decided to cut loose from them and become independent.

First he weakened the power of Fancy Pants and his family, by bribing their supporters with nobility and great wealth. He also won them over by giving them, military and political power. Within a few weeks the love for their previous master faded away and was replaced by love for the prince. After dividing the support of the Pants’ he looked for a chance to make them completely powerless. He got his chance, and he took it. Because when Fancy Pants realised, though late, that the power of the prince meant his downfall he organised an uprising in Urbino and almost in Romagna. Wich Blueblood overcame with help of the French.

When he had secured his standing he decided, because he didn’t want to come into a conflict with France or an other country (he trusted nopony), to use guile and deception to achieve his purposes. He knew how to disguise his true intentions so the Pants’ made peace with him. This foolishness meant that they practically handed him Senegallia on a silver platter. After killing the head of the family and converting it’s supporters to his side the prince had finally laid a strong base for his power. He controlled all of Romagna after all, and he trusted in the friendship of the peasant ponies because they could enjoy a certain level of peace and prosperity tanks to him.

When the prince had taken Romagna and discovered that the rulership had been in the hooves of a weak Princess that had preferred exploiting her subjects to governing the and had created dissesnsion, with the effect of unrest, banditry and other expressions of aggression everywhere, he concluded that, to achieve peace and obedience of from the people he needed a powerful governement. He appointed Remirro de Orco, a cruel pony without any conscience, giving him full control of Romagna, his merciless order quickly reinstated peace in Romagna. After this the prince decided that such a strict rule was not needed anymore, because it would create hate omang the peasants. So he created the civil tribunal with an eminant president for the handling of justice. And , to undo the hate he had created with his actions and prove that if there had been cruelty it had not come from him but his appointed minister, he had Orco cut into pieces one moring on the  square in Cesena and put on display. By this horrid cruelty of this action the ponies were both satisfied and silenced.

But I digress, prince Blueblood had secured his power by giving himself an army of his own and getting rid of the forces that might pose a danger to him. The only thing he still had to fear was the Princess of France, because he knew that she had understood her mistake and wouldn’t allow any further warring on his part. That is why he chose the side of Spain when they occupied Geata. He did this with the intention of securing himself against France, in wich he would have succeeded if his mother hadn’t died.

His main fear was that the new Papal Princess would prove an enemy of his, and that she would try to rob him of what his mother had given him. He concluded there were four ways to deal with the problem: first to exterminate all the descendents of the previous rulers of the cities he had conquered in order to take away one way for the Papal Princess to create forces against him; secondly, to win over all the nobles of Rome using their support to restrain her; thirdly, to win over the friendship of all the possible candidates of the Paapal position; and fourthly, to amass enough power for himself to withstand the first attack should it come. He had completed three of these four precautions when his mother died, the last had been almost completed, one royal heir had survived.

When he didn’t have to fear France anymore (because France had been robbed of Naples by Spain forcing both countries to make peace with him), he attacked Pisa. Wich immediately surrendered to him, partly due to hate for Canterlot and partly due to fear. And Canterlot could do nothing against this. If the prince had succeeded in his endeavors he would have gained enough power to be independent and not reliant on the situation and armies and others but of his own qualities. But Faust died 5 years after Blueblood had started fighting and with her death his power over Romagna was crippled he was trapped between the powerful armies of France and Spain and also succumbing to the same illness his mother had conracted.

The prince possesed so much boldness and energy and he understood the art of befriending and exterminating ponies so well and he had laid such a strong base for his power that if he hadn’t had the threat of the neaby armies and if he had been in good health he could have overcome any problem. That his power was firmly based is obvious, the Romagna awaited his arrival for more than a month. He was safe in Rome, altough he was more dead than alive due to his sickness. And altough his enemies came to Rome also, they could not unite anypony against him. He had planned al the things he had to do should his mother die, but he had not suspected that after the death of his mother he himself would lay on his deathbed.

Now that I have described all the deeds of the prince, I have nothing to criticize. Actually, I would take him, as I have done before, as the best example for what to do when you have gained power by fortune and the weapons of others. The only thing oppossing the fruitation of his plans was the sickness of Faust and himself. She who sees the sense in securing a new position against her enemies, winning ponies over to her side, getting the upperhand through violence or deception, making herself loved and feared among the peasants, being obeyed and respected by her troops, exterminating those that can harm her, replacing the old order with a new one, being strict and friendly or generous and nobel, destroying unloyal troops, creating a new army and keeping the favor of mighty Princesses, she should take Blueblood as an example. REgardless of gender.

(1) Sparkle elaborates on the subject of empresses in chapter 19

(2) The Princess of Milan was Sforza at the time, she would undoubtely have protected the cities housing many of her relatives and Venice would do the same with ponyville and manehattan.

(3) The noble Pants family was very powerful, especially since they controlled practically all mercenary troops in equestria.

(4) The motives of the sea ponies and the consequences have been discussed by Sparkle in chapter 3.

(5) Louis married into the Royal family of Brittany for political purposes.

(6) The conquering of Romagna was led by blueblood, after Louis  had moved into Milan Blueblood seized, in chronological order, the cities of Imola, Forli, Pesaro, Manehattan, Urbino, Camerino, Senigallia and citta di Castello.