Chapter I. |
|
Chapter I.
Chapter I.
Of the Various Kinds of Princedom, and of the Ways In Which They Are Acquired
All the States and Governments by which men are or ever have been ruled,
have been and are either Republics or Princedoms. Princedoms are either
hereditary, in which the sovereignty is derived through an ancient line of
ancestors, or they are new. New Princedoms are either wholly new, as that of
Milan to Francesco Sforza; or they are like limbs joined on to the hereditary
possessions of the Prince who acquires them, as the Kingdom of Naples to the
dominions of the King of Spain. The States thus acquired have either been used
to live under a Prince or have been free; and he who acquires them does so
either by his own arms or by the arms of others, and either by good fortune or
by merit.
|
