Machiavelli also drew on his experiences as diplomatic envoy to the court of the king of France and to the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany (1498-1512). In 1512 Spanish troops allied with Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici sacked the nearby city of Prato, provoking the fall of Machiavelli’s employer—the Florentine Republic. The period of republican rule (1494-1512) ended, and Machiavelli lost his position. The Medici family, who had ruled Florence before the republican period, returned to power, followed by another period of republican rule (1527-1530). Finally, the troops of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and Spanish monarch, besieged Florence, and it again returned to Medici rule, which led to its becoming a hereditary duchy (in 1532) with Alessandro de’ Medici as duke. It was in this same year that Machiavelli published The Prince. Despite having written a short treatment in favor of Medici rule (Ai Palleschi, 1512), Machiavelli was imprisoned and, it seems, tortured for his alleged role in an anti-Medici plot in 1513. Later that year Giovanni de’ Medici became the pope (as Leo X), and Machiavelli was released as part of an amnesty.
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