Note 168 — Chapter I · —How the King of France cajoled the English after the Duke of Burgundy’s Death, for fear they should have interrupted him in the Conquest of the Territories belonging to the said Duke.—1477. (continued 2)

Chastellain (129.) reports this speech of Louis XI. on his accession to the crown: “Only yesterday I held myself to be the poorest son of a king that ever was, and one who, from my infancy to the present day, have had nought but suffering and tribulation, poverty, anguish, and want; and, what is more, expulsion from my inheritance, and loss of my father’s love, so as to be obliged, my wife and myself, to live by borrowing and begging, without a foot of land, a house to cover us, or a penny in our pockets, except by the goodness and charity of my good uncle, who has maintained me thus for the space of five years.”