6.5. THE NEUTRALIZATION AND CIRCULATION OF WEALTH

"IT'S A MAN THAT I NEVER SEE," SAYS LOUIS OF SOMEONE FOR WHOM A FAVOR IS ASKED 

Being seen by the king participating in the ceremonies that fill part of his days is the only way to  —  perhaps — obtain an aid that will let one hold one's rank, rise in one's career, obtain a useful mariage for one's children (...) at a time when inflation lessens the value of fixed peasant dues.  

Four thousand lords can live in the palace, with their servants, horses and dogs, plus 3000 around it.

--How many people lived in the château of Versailles? (blog "Histoire sympa") and the description of the  Center for recherche of the chateau de Versailles ; both studies from 2023.

*    * 

The cost of "paying court:"  

Intagram / zoom

Jabot in Venetian lace and waistcoat embroidered in gold, to be changed three times a day depending on activity, worn for no more than two weeks at a time, or once for major ceremonies. 

 

• Only the grandest are decently lodged at the chateau. Others share a tiny room with servants, often without a window, terribly hot in summer and freezing in winter. To arrive at the necessary ceremonies they rush through endless corridors, that the scarcity of  badly-cleaned latrines cause to stink.

-- Video on the conditions of life in Versailles

Or they build townhouses or pay an exorbitant rent in the town that has shot up around the palace or in the new neighborhoods of Paris (explained here, here and here). The back and forth (two hours round trip on horseback from the nearest exit, six to eight by coach), adding to the fatigue.  

• They must hire servants and furnish their liveries, whose splendor indicates status; maintain a coach and horses, also signs of status ; acquire wigs to change three times a day and frequently renew (they fall apart and house lice), buy jewels, ribbons, buttons plus perfumes to mask body odor because one does not bathe; belong to a clan, gain the support of the powerful... .

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

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

Zoom

• 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.

Admission comes though backing (which means a favor in return or a large tip). 

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

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

*      *

Attitudes are coded. A courtier says he loves watching dogs fight over bones, because they are authentic.

-- The Court Society by Norbert Elias, 1974

*     *

Compensation beyond ambition: being part of a superior world that is inaccessible to other mortals and venerating the representative of God: "I won't go to the theater tonight, because I have not yet seen the king."

 -- Superior world: Elias, cited above

-- See the king: : letter of the princesse Palatine (my memory)

 

*    *

Versailles is the extreme expression of

 destroying some investable resources,

making others circulate

and strengthening the authority

that protects a society 

which the search for profit menaces.

*     *     *

Next,  

6.6.

Outlawing Protestantism brings capitalists to heel