Tell me about Louis! Why does he build the palace?!
>>1106836
Versailles was essentially a big theatre, where Louis XIV could play an elaborate play with his nobles, effectively stripping them of much of their previous power.
>>1106886
And why would they want to play along?
>>1106891
If they didn't they wouldn't be one of the cool kids.
>>1106905
But they'd get to stay in a position of power. Beats being the cool kid.
>>1106891
If a noble wanted to get anything done, he had to be near Louis XIV, since he basically decided everything. Cramming so many nobles together also has another side effect: they start one-upping each other, and have to take out loans. They become financially dependant on whatever offices were bestowed upon them.
Then Louis XIV forced all office-holders to stay near Versailles, meaning that their intendants (who were only responsible to the king) did all the real work.
Versailles really was a large scheme to rob France's nobility of most of their power, and in the grand scheme of things it worked beautifully.
>>1106933
>If a noble wants to get anything done, he had to be near Louis XIV, since he basically decided everything
They fucked themselves over. How did they not see the scheme? The only reason Louis has absolute power is because they're all under his thumb in the same palace, but they didn't have to go to the palaca in the first place.
Did none of them see this for what it was? Did they simply not care?
>>1106947
Not following along with the cool kids leads the clergy in your lands, and the peasantry tilling your fields, to think you're not so cool either. There was no Aesthetic philosophy movement in France at that time. It was also a time in which, for the first time in forever, the King of France wielded a military force that was larger than the combined forces of two Dukes. Therefore, if you're going to ignore the King's orders while everyone else is obeying them, the King can and will come and take all your shit, put your head on a pike, and everyone else will sit back and watch. This period really was, for the first time in probably a millennium, where MOST monarchs were beginning to become fiscally and militarily independent of their vassals to some extent.
>>1106963
>Ignore the King and he comes to take your shit and kill you while everyone grabs some popcorn
An isolated noble, maybe, but I find it strange that most of them didn't see what was happening and banded together to defend their interests.
>>1106974
After the fronde rebellion, the military power of the French nobility was effectively broken. They had no choice, because the king's standing army had them vastly outnumbered.
>>1106974
Why would they ? Nobles don't care about their classe privileges, they care about their own privilege. While they were in Versailles, the dukes, the counts, the lords, they kept scheming and betraying each other to have a nice place near the Sun King, Louis XIV. That's all they cared about.
>>1106911
They would be in a position of power, they just had to use it the way Louis XIV wanted.
