Niccolo Machiavelli is remembered as the godfather of political cynicism — the man who taught rulers that it is better to be feared than loved. But The Prince was written by a desperate, unemployed republican who had been tortured on the rack by the very regime he was trying to impress. Far from a celebration of tyranny, the book was a job application written from exile by a man who believed in republican government and spent his career trying to restore it.

This episode recovers the real Machiavelli from five centuries of caricature, tracing his career as a Florentine diplomat, his arrest and torture after the Medici returned to power, and the true purpose behind the most misunderstood book in political philosophy.

• Machiavelli's career as a Florentine diplomat during Italy's most turbulent era
• The Medici restoration, his ...