Lehal Library

The King of France, on the other hand, is surrounded by any number of barons whose rights date back to ancient times and who are acknowledged and loved by their subjects. Each baron has specific privileges which a king can only take away at his peril. Looking at these two kinds of states, it’s clear that Turkey is hard to conquer but once conquered very easy to hold. France on the other hand will be somewhat easier to conquer but very hard to hold. The reason why it’s hard to conquer a country like Turkey is that there are no barons to invite you in and you can’t expect anyone to make your invasion easier by rebelling against the king. This follows naturally from the situation as described above; since all subjects are the king’s servants and indebted to him it’s hard to corrupt them, and even assuming you do manage to bribe someone he’s not likely to be much help because he can’t bring any local people along with him, this again for the reasons I’ve explained. So, anyone attacking this kind of country has to reckon that he will find it united against him and hence has to rely on his own armed forces rather than on any mutiny in enemy ranks. But once you have won and routed the enemy and made sure he can’t rebuild his armies, then the only thing to worry about is the king and his family. Eliminate them and no one else can threaten you since no one commands the loyalty of the people. Just as before your victory you couldn’t look to any barons for help, so after it there are none around to pose a threat. The opposite is true in countries run along French lines. Here you can make inroads easily enough, winning the sup- port of a baron or two. There’s always someone unhappy with the king and eager for change. Then these people are well placed to get you a foothold in the country and help you to victory. But afterwards you’re going to have all kinds of problems holding on to what you’ve won, problems with the people who fought on your side and problems with those who fought against you and lost. This time it won’t be enough to