# Concerning Hereditary Principalities

I will leave out all discussion on republics, inasmuch as in another place I
have written of them at length, and will address myself only to principalities.
In doing so I will keep to the order indicated above, and discuss how such
principalities are to be ruled and preserved.

I say at once there are fewer difficulties in holding hereditary states, and
those long accustomed to the family of their prince, than new ones; for it is
sufficient only not to transgress the customs of his ancestors, and to deal
prudently 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.
