Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


Notwithstanding the resources obtained by the King through mortgaging a
part of the royal domains, and in spite of the excellent administration of
Robertet, who almost always managed to pay the public deficit without any
additional tax, it was necessary in 1513, after several disastrous
expeditions to Italy, to borrow, on the security of the royal domains,
400,000 livres, 10,000,000 francs of present money, and to raise from the
excise and from other dues and taxes the sum of 3,300,000 livres, about
80,000,000 francs of present money. This caused the nation some distress,
but it was only temporary, and was not much felt, for commerce, both
domestic and foreign, much extended at the same time, and the sale of
collectorships, of titles of nobility, of places in parliament, and of
nominations to numerous judicial offices, brought in considerable sums to
the treasury. The higher classes surnamed the king _Le Roitelet_, because
he was sickly and of small stature, parsimonious and economical. The
people called him their "father and master," and he has always been styled
the father of the people ever since.

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