Urias

A new prince is either the first prince of a state (if he conquered a state which was former a republic), which was used to live in freedom, or he just replaced an old prince.
This is a controversial part of this chapter because there still is lots of discussion, whether Machiavelli sees princely rule as absolutely incompatible with freedom or not.

The king of Naples, Friedrich I of Naples, was betrayed by his cousin, Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1501. Ferdinand invaded Naples under the pretext that he was planning a crusade against the turks. Because of this Friedrich I allied himself with the french and gave his right to the kingdom of Naples to the french. The kingdom of Naples was split up in a french and a spanish part, but in 1503 Ferdinand II ceased control of the whole kingdom.

King Ferdinand II of Aragon:

A prince can gain power through his own army of loyal soldiers or through mercenaries or the help of other states. This is explained later in the book, but Machiavelli sees mercenaries and foreign help as extremely dangerous and unreliable. According to Machiavelli, only the prince who rises to power through his own men can stay in power for a long time.

Every state which is ruled by a prince is either ruled by one person, which comes from an old dynasty of princes, which have been there for more than one generation, or have been conquered by a person who doesn’t come from a line of local princes. As Machiavelli says later, the latter one has a much harder time to stay in power.

Here we find one of the main contradistinctions in Machiavelli’s thought: A state can either be ruled by a prince, or it can be organized as a republic. Although this view is contested, many scholars say, that the term “republic” in Machiavelli’s thought does not mean some kind of constitutional form of government. Instead, they say, that “republic” should be taken in it’s original meaning “res publica” (= common wealth). For Machiavelli, every state which is concerned with the common wealth of the people, instead of the particular desires of aristocrats or a prince, is a republic.

Francesco Sforza was the husband of Bianca Maria Visconti, the daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, the prince of Milan. After Viscontis death in 1457, the milanese proclaimed the Ambrosian Republic, but were crushed by Sforzas troops. He thereafter became Duke of Milan and founded the influential Sforza-Dynasty.

Franzesco Sforza: