The Prince
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Considering the difficulties which men have had to hold to a
newly acquired state, some might wonder how, seeing that Alexander the Great
became the master of Asia in a few years, and died whilst it was scarcely settled
(whence it might appear reasonable that the whole empire would have rebelled),
nevertheless his successors maintained themselves, and had to meet no other
difficulty than that which arose among themselves from their own ambitions.
I answer that the principalities of which one has record are
found to be governed in two different ways; either by a prince, with a body of
servants, who assist him to govern the kingdom as ministers by his favour and
permission; or by a prince and barons, who hold that dignity by antiquity of
blood and not by the grace of the prince. Such barons have states and their own
subjects, who recognize them as lords and hold them in natural affection. Those
states that are governed by a prince and his servants hold their prince in more
consideration, because in all the country there is no one who is recognized as
superior to him, and if they yield obedience to another they do it as to a
minister and official, and they do not bear him any particular affection.
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