Thomas Fitzherbert's reason of state

► Examines bases and argument of Fitzherbert's attack on Machiavellianism. ► Finds that his objections were principally religious. ► His arguments however envisaged an audience of 'politicians' and 'statists'. ► His strategy was to argue against Machiavellianism from Machiavellian principles. ► His case is shown to be that virtuous policies promised this-worldly success. ► Machiavellian policies by contrary were likely to prove failures by any standard.