How Many Kinds Of Principalities There Are And By What Means They Are Acquired
ALL
STATES, all
powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either
republics or
principalities.
Principalities are either
hereditary, in which the family has been long established; or they are new.
The new are either entirely new, as was
Milan to Francesco Sforza, or they are, as it were, members
annexed to the
hereditary state of the prince who has acquired them, as was the
kingdom of Naples to that of
the King of Spain.
Such
dominions thus acquired are either accustomed to live under a
prince, or to live in freedom; and are acquired either by the arms of the prince himself, or of others, or else by
fortune or by ability.
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