Quentin Durward is a young Scotsman seeking fame and fortune in the France of Louis XI in the fourteenth century. He knows little and understands less, but Scott represents his ignorance and naiveté as useful to "the most sagacious prince in Europe" who needs servants motivated solely by the desire for coin and credit and lacking any interest in France, which would interfere with the execution of his political aims. In Quentin Durward Scott studies the first modern state in the process of destroying the European feudal system.