Court etiquette, why was it so important?

Everyone who is just a little bit interested in court life of the ancient rgime knows how strict the etiquette was and that the courtiers followed in our eyes strange ceremonies like for example the leve and coucher. In this blog I will explain you why the court etiquette was considered so extremely important.

A perfect example of the court etiquette and ceremony is the leve (the ceremony of the rising of the king). Everything in this ceremony is extremely precisely organized. It was obviously needed the king would get dressed but it also had a social function. The king would use private moments like getting dressed to create differences between ranks, give favors and to show his displeasure. This gave the etiquette a very symbolic function as well.

The king Louis XIV had most certainly not ''invented'' the whole etiquette himself. But he did use the etiquette for his authority. The king wouldn't only follow the official ranking system but also made use of small occasions to decide the status of a courtier. By doing so, he uses the concurrence between courtiers for favors and privileges for his own authoirty.

During the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette the courtiers followed the same etiquette as during the reign of Louis XIV but everyone from all ranks disliked the etiquette. However, giving up the etiquette was no option. Because that would mean giving up all the privileges and losing power opportunities for everyone.

Even the smallest change in the position of people in the etiquette would be a change of the entire social ranks in the court society. Because of this everyone was extremely sensitive about changing the etiquette. You would think its strange that people would be so sensitive about it especially when you realize that at the end of the 18^th century a lot of people disliked the etiquette and followed it with distaste. However, when the queen Marie Antoinette wanted to change the etiquette a little bit it was the high nobility that complained. For example, when a duchesse had the privilege to sit around the queen it would be annoying if someone of lower rank could do so as well.

There also is another reason why the court etiquette never stopped. This is because there always was concurrence between courtiers about power, status and prestige opportunities. Because of this courtiers would actually make each other following the etiquette. The lower ranked courtiers gave pressure on the high ranked ones and the high ranked courtiers on the lower ranked ones, this stabilized the system and mechanism of the etiquette and so the etiquette would be followed till the revolution.

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