All of Our Friends

Would you like to have, on any given day, 3,000 to 10,000 people living and leeching off your palace, vying constantly for your favor? Well, I sure hope so. The courtiers of Versailles were an intrinsic part of French court, government, and politics—they made up everyone from the Secretary of State to the Valet de Chambre-Barber.

The society of courtiers was both highly diverse and highly structured. The hierarchy of courtiers depended on the whys and hows of why and how courtiers were in Versailles. Some, like the king’s extended family, were there by right of birth; some had social obligations; some were interested observers; and some were just there to earn a living.

The king surrounded by courtiers.

 

But nobles, especially the high-ranking ones, flocked to Versailles. Being at Versailles gave them every opportunity ask favors from the king. Not only would favors be financial allowances or invitations to special ceremonies, it also meant political or martial favor, especially if you had a provincial administrative role. Was your duchy in trouble from incursions from Spain? If you wanted Louis to send troops, you had to go attend the king and ask for favors.

But getting into Versailles, then into the social circles of the king within Versailles, that required more than just high birth.

For that, courtiers wanted a role. If they had one, they were said to be “established” at court; usually it only took either a) inheriting the role or b) buying your way into the role. Your role gave you some sort of duty—-the king’s approval was the most essential, of course, especially if you were going to be the Secretary of State—but if you wanted a role as a glorified servant, all you had to do to shave the king’s face was to buy out the Grand Chamberlain.

Much like the king, the queen was attended from morning until dusk. From the movie Marie-Antoinette, here’s an accurately uncomfortable depiction of what it would be like to wake up surrounded by your courtiers.

 

Having a role at court, even if it cost you a lot of money, might actually save you some in the long run. Accomodation in Versailles was highly sought after; it removed the cost of travel and a space to relax when not explicitly carrying out courtly duties. (Versailles, remember, is almost twenty miles from the heart of Paris.) But accomodation was just another step on the hierarchy—-your accomodation is Versailles was linked to how important you were. The royal family and those with extremely important administrative functions had rooms that overlooked the gardens, but lesser-ranked courtiers might only get a view of the city or the stables.

While in court, courtiers had to follow even more strict ettiquette. In keeping with the hierarchy, there was a strict order of precedence about who could approach more important figures, where, and when. Body langauge and manners of speech were dictated and subtly different depending on the circumstances—-what titles you gave which people, who could sit down on an armchair or a chair or a stool—-were elaborate and opaque to outsiders.

Even for those who served with the king in high-level administration or military they still had to maintain court rituals. It was not enough for good service or beauty or intellect: to truly win royal favor, they still had to display their talents through displays of money, particularly through court fashion, to attract attention.

Why spend so much time with the courtiers? By all accounts, this seems useless—-spending so much time and money on sycophants. But this was all part of Louis XIV’s grander plan.

Louis XIV was a young boy when the Frond occurred and it scarred him for life; the Frond was an uprising of French nobles against the crown and demonstrated how perilous the monarchy’s situation was—it depended completely on the support of the nobility, who usually ran the country and filled most major positions in government.

Unlike his father and grandfather, affording the noble-born courtiers who made up the majority of French bureaucracy, giving them duties resorted a sense of service among nobility, especially duty to the crown. With having the king be the one to dispense these roles, the perception of nobility being “essential” in service to the kingdom came to give the king more authority and more control over the nobility.

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