Leadership
A good leader is only as good as the qualities he possess, the advisors he surrounds himself with, and if he carries out his role properly. It is a leader’s role to benefit the people he is ruling; by making society a peaceful, organized, and flourishing place to lead a productive life. A good leader will consult and seek advice from his advisors, whose job it is to council the leader in matters concerning his leadership. During the Renaissance, in the fifteenth century, there were many scholars and royal advisors that depicted what a leader should be like and how a leader actually was during the Renaissance. There were many leaders that failed to carry out their roles properly by ignoring the advice of their advisors and by neglecting their role as leaders to fulfill their own selfish needs, as will be discussed through Thomas More’s book Utopia.
A great leader is one who rules to benefit his people and puts aside any selfish intentions. He does not seek to increase his wealth and power at the expense of his people. This however, was not the case in the time of Thomas More during the fifteenth century. Thomas More served as the chancellor to the King of England, he was also a civic humanist and wrote the book Utopia. In his book Utopia his character Raphael Hythlodaeus, a great scholar, described how the kings were not good rulers and that he would not serve on the court of such kings as it says, “Most kings are more interested in the science of war…than in useful peacetime techniques. They’re far more anxious, by hook or by crook, to acquire new kingdoms than to govern their existing ones properly.” He said the kings were power hungry and were only looking to increase their land rather than establish and rule society. This did not make a king a good ruler by owning more land; it destroyed society by going to war with so many countries. In