THE PRINCE

BY NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI

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CHAPTER I.

All the States and all the Dominions that have had, and have, empire over men have been and are either Republics or Principalities. Principalities are either hereditary, in which the blood of their lord has been Prince for a long time, or they are new. The new ones are either entirely new, as was Milan to Francesco Sforza, or they are like limbs added to the hereditary state of the prince who acquires them, as is the Kingdom of Naples to the King of Spain. These dominions thus acquired are either accustomed to living under a prince, or used to being free, and they are acquired either with the arms of others or with one’s own, either by fortune or by virtue.

CHAPTER II.

I will leave aside any discourse on republics, because I have spoken of them at length another time. I will turn only to the Principality and proceed by reweaving these threads mentioned above, arguing how these principalities can be governed and maintained. I say, therefore, that in hereditary states, accustomed to the blood of their prince, there are far fewer difficulties in maintaining them than in new ones: because it is sufficient only not to deviate from the order of one's ancestors, and then to temporize with incidents, such that if such a Prince is of ordinary industry, he will always maintain himself in his state, unless there is an extraordinary and excessive force that deprives him of it; and once deprived of it, no matter the setback the occupier may have, he regains it. We have in Italy, for example, the Duke of Ferrara, the