THE PRINCE.
CHAP. I.
How many Kinds of Principalities there are, and by what Means they are acquired.
All states, or sovereignties, which have, or have had, authority over mankind, have been and are, either republics or principalities.
Principalities are divided into those which are hereditary in one house who has long reigned over them, or into new ones.
Of those that are new, some are entirely so, as that of Francis Sforza at Milan; or, as members Incorporated with the hereditary states of the prince who acquires them, as that of the kingdom of Naples with respect to that of Spain.
These states, thus acquired, either live under a prince, or enjoy their liberty. The conqueror renders himself master of them, either by foreign arms, or by his own, by some fortunate event, or by his personal courage and his talents.