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 an-
cient 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.
