Here follow various digressions about Alexander, relating to parts of the West such as France, England, Scotland and other lands thereabouts.

At the behest of my aforesaid esteemed lord I have undertaken to record in our mother tongue the deeds and conquests of that mighty and feared emperor Alexander. Now, it is universally recognised that his prowess won him lordship and kingship over all the earth, both East and West, and so it follows that he was lord of the whole of France and all neighbouring lands. But in none of the sources I've consulted in compiling this work of mine – such as Vincent le Jacopin or Guillaume,3 both of whom wrote records of Alexander's deeds – have I found how or in what manner he came to subjugate this region. And since France or its neighbouring countries are the native lands of my esteemed lord – a discreet, strong and worthy governor, notably of the fine and noble land of Picardy, under the hand of my most revered and mighty lord Philip, by the grace of God duke of Burgundy, Lothier, Brabant and Limburg, count of Flanders, Artois and Burgundy, count palatine of Hainault, Holland, Zeeland and Namur, margrave of the Holy Empire and lord of Frisia, Salins and Mechelen – and since I myself, too, am a native of that same land of Picardy, I wish here to draw upon material I've found in the History of the Belgians, written and assembled by a most venerable doctor and master of theology, the Franciscan friar Jacques de Guise.