The politics of royal education: Xenophon's Education of Cyrus in early eighteenth-century Europe

Xenophon's Education of Cyrus, a historical fiction based on Cyrus the Great's imperial venture, has not received as much attention as Machiavelli's Prince. The purpose of this paper is to examine how three major political thinkers and royal tutors of early eighteenth-century Europe used this book in their search for a new anti-Machiavellian model of political leadership. The paper discusses the work of Archbishop Fénelon, tutor to Louis XIV's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy; Andrew Michael Ramsay royal advisor to Charles Edward, the young Pretender; and Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, who originally wrote his controversial advice-book for princes, The Idea of a Patriot King, for Frederick, Prince of Wales.