6.2. LA STUPÉFIANTE DESTRUCTION ET CIRCULATION DE RICHESSES

 

COMME TOUJOURS, EFFACER LES RICHESSES QUI POURRAIENT ÊTRE INVESTIES RENFORCE L'AUTORITÉ : VERSAILLES EST OUVERT À TOUS ET DES FOULES DE ROTURIERS SONT TOUJOURS PRÉSENTES

Il absorbe les revenus des nobles et les font circuler : au moins mille seigneurs peuvent être accueillis en même temps avec leurs serviteurs et leurs chevaux. Certains disent quatre mille et même dix mille. 

Les nobles ont besoin de l'aide du roi pour « tenir leur rang », car l'inflation réduit la valeur des revenus des terres. Ils perdent leur privilèges en faisant du commerce, pour lequel leur éducation et mode de vie de toute façon ne les prépare pas. 

Intagram / zoom

They must come in person, but "paying" court is extremely costly.

• Only the grandest are lodged at the chateau, so most pay an exorbitant rent in Versailles or the new neighborhoods of Paris (explained here and here).

• They must hire servants and furnish their liveries, maintain a coach and horses, become part of a clan,  gain the support of the powerful and acquire the sumptuous court dress with its four changes a day:

Pierre Puget presents his Statue of Milon de Croton in the Gardens of Versailles by Eugène Davéria, 1832 / zoom

• The king encourages gambling for high stakes, which makes losers dependent on him. As well, card games are considered sociable and are the only time when one can sit down.

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• The courtier will be rewarded perhaps, if the king sees him participating at the ceremonial the occupies part of his days. 

The king's levée by Maurice Leloir

Louis cannot reward all courtiers tangibly, so honors are prizes as well: Among them, assisting at his dressing or undressing, in the morning or at night.

That admission comes with backing (which means a favor in return or a large tip). Otherwise courtiers must join the crowd lined up on both sides of the Hall of Mirror, jostling for the king's notice as he strides majestically through the vast space on his way to mass... .

Then they analyse every word, gesture, look, to know whom to flatter or avoid. "Knowing one's court" takes time.  

Success is uncertain: Saint-Simon gets to hold a candlestick... after three years, and only once. 

A courtier says he loves watching dogs gnaw bones, because they are authentic.

Compensation: be part of a superior world, 

inaccessible to other mortals. 

 -- The Court Society by Norbert Elias, 1974

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Next,  

6.3.

No water!