Prosperity of France

When I was younger, I was trained to rule by my father and was even made the lieutenant general of Languedoc for his military campaigns. After many things happened, I had been banished to a province far away and then was chased by my own dad to Phillip the Good. There I learned adversity and many other things that resulted in my greatness as king. When I was finally crowned king, I took my time to restore my country to what it had been before. The prosperity of France and the authority of the Crown were of major concern to me. During my kingship, I helped France recover from the foreign and civil disasters of the Hundred Years War and its economic decline of the early 15th century. By having my authority present in every area of public life, I weakened the French aristocracy, which was always a threat to my reign, and destroyed the power of the dukes' house in Burgundy. I even encouraged the development of new industries and after a century of war and attack, had France on the path to economic recovery. To think that many people thought of me as incompetent and detestable. I achieved greatness for France and I and could think of no higher achievement than that. Even James Cleugh said that I was, " Like other strong minded boys, he had found at last he could not carry all before him by mere bluster. Neither as prince nor as king did he ever forget his lesson. He never acted on pure impulse, without reflection, though to his life’s end he was constantly tempted to take such a risk.” from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XI