If I Were King (1938)

Basil Rathbone: Louis XI

Photos 

Quotes 

• King Louis XI : If it is so easy to be king, how would you begin?

  François Villon : First, by eating... my next step would be to clean house. The vermin who infest the palace I'd hang in clusters.

  King Louis XI : What would you do next?

  François Villon : Try to know my subjects and try to earn their devotion and loyalty instead of their loathing.

  King Louis XI : By abolishing taxes, I suppose?

  François Villon : No! By abolishing despair and substituting hope. By knowing the longings in their hearts as a man of the people would, seeing them as they are and admitting that their vices are as deep rooted as their virtues. I'd treat them as my children instead of as my enemies, so by knowing the worst in them, I'd bring out the best in them.

• King Louis XI : Oh Tristan. How do you like my new magnanimity?

  Tristan l'Hermite : I think Your Majesty will live to regret the whole joke.

  King Louis XI : Well the trouble with you Tristan is that you have no sense of humour. You're looking at a new Louis, Tristan. You have just seen my new method of dealing with habitual criminals - we don't hang them, we cover them with gold.

• Katherine de Vaucelles : Why don't we attack them and get it over with? Have we no arms? Have we no men to fight for us?

  King Louis XI : Well spoken, Lady Katherine. Spoken with all the impatience of youth with its life before it and the courage of a woman that doesn't have to fight!