The Prince | Page 9

with circumstances as they arise, for a prince of
average powers to maintain himself in his state, unless he be deprived
of it by some extraordinary and excessive force; and if he should be so
deprived of it, whenever anything sinister happens to the usurper, he
will regain it.
We have in Italy, for example, the Duke of Ferrara, who could not have
withstood the attacks of the Venetians in '84, nor those of Pope Julius
in '10, unless he had been long established in his dominions. For the
hereditary prince has less cause and less necessity to offend; hence it
happens that he will be more loved; and unless extraordinary vices
cause him to be hated, it is reasonable to expect that his subjects will be
naturally well disposed towards him; and in the antiquity and duration
of his rule the memories and motives that make for change are lost, for
one change always leaves the toothing for another.
CHAPTER III

CONCERNING MIXED PRINCIPALITIES
But the difficulties occur in a new principality. And firstly, if it be not
entirely new, but is, as it were, a member of a state which, taken
collectively, may be called composite, the changes arise chiefly from
an inherent difficulty which there is in all new principalities; for men
change their rulers willingly, hoping to better themselves, and this hope
induces them to take up arms against him who rules: wherein they are
deceived, because they afterwards find by experience they have gone
from bad to worse. This follows also on another natural and common
necessity, which always causes a new prince to burden those who have
submitted to him with his soldiery and with infinite other hardships
which he must put upon his new acquisition.
In this way you have enemies in all those whom you have injured in
seizing that principality, and you are not able to keep those friends who
put you there because of your not being able to satisfy them in the way
they expected, and you cannot take strong measures against them,
feeling bound to them. For, although one may be very strong in armed
forces, yet in entering a province one has always need of the goodwill
of the natives.
For these reasons Louis the Twelfth, King of France, quickly occupied
Milan, and as quickly lost it; and to turn him out the first time it only
needed Lodovico's own forces; because those who had opened the gates
to him, finding themselves deceived in their hopes of future benefit,
would not endure the ill-treatment of the new prince. It is very true that,
after acquiring rebellious provinces a second time, they are not so
lightly lost afterwards, because the prince, with little reluctance, takes
the opportunity of the rebellion to punish the delinquents, to clear out
the suspects, and to strengthen himself in the weakest places. Thus to
cause France to lose Milan the first time it was enough for the Duke
Lodovico[*] to raise insurrections on the borders; but to cause him to
lose it a second time it was necessary to bring the whole world against
him, and that his armies should be defeated and driven out of Italy;
which followed from the causes above mentioned.
[*] Duke Lodovico was Lodovico Moro, a son of Francesco Sforza,

who married Beatrice d'Este. He ruled over Milan from 1494 to 1500,
and died in 1510.
Nevertheless Milan was taken from France both the first and the second
time. The general reasons for the first have been discussed; it remains
to name those for the second, and to see what resources he had, and
what any one in his situation would have had for maintaining himself
more securely in his acquisition than did the King of France.
Now I say that those dominions which, when acquired, are added to an
ancient state by him who acquires them, are either of the same country
and language, or they are not. When they are, it is easier to hold them,
especially when they have not been accustomed to self- government;
and to hold them securely it is enough to have destroyed the family of
the prince who was ruling them; because the two peoples, preserving in
other things the old conditions, and not being unlike in customs, will
live quietly together, as one has seen in Brittany, Burgundy, Gascony,
and Normandy, which have been bound to France for so long a time:
and, although there may be some difference in language, nevertheless
the customs are alike, and the people will easily be able to get on
amongst themselves. He who has annexed them, if he wishes to hold
them, has only to bear in mind two considerations: the one, that the
family of their former lord is extinguished; the other, that neither