A way to realize and present the superiority of royal power over other people in the kingdom during the Modern age it was through the rituals of the absolutist cuts. With the rituals, the kings created an image of refinement and sophistication in their habits that was not accessible to other social groups.
These rituals were composed of etiquette rules that marked social differentiation, and were presented as a knowledge held by nobles and kings, not made possible by bourgeois, peasants and serfs. Knowledge of palace rituals was necessary to know how to behave at royal parties and dinners. There was a specific way to dance, to behave at a dinner table or even to dress and perform in public. Even to greet nobles and kings it was necessary to know the proper gestures, in order not to create embarrassing situations and even enmities.
Through the codes of etiquette, the nobles exerted influence and showed the power that they held, since it was in the palace ceremonies that many decisions were taken. Hence the possibility of creating palace intrigues with the aim of influencing decisions, so commonly presented in the literature that portrays that time.
Participation in these ceremonies guarantee social prestige, through a different lifestyle of poor people, and also provided a feeling of honor. It is these characteristics that lead some historians and sociologists to claim that, unlike society, capitalist, divided into social classes based on economic criteria, the society of the Modern Age was divided in estates. Those who had privileges, such as the clergy and the nobility, outweighed those who did not, such as the peasants, the nobles and the bourgeois. This form of social division is called estate society, where there is no social mobility. In this way, people who are born in one stage will never pass to another. For example, peasants will always be peasants and cannot one day become nobles.
For these scholars, it was the privileges, honor, lifestyle and tradition that placed the nobility and clergy in a situation of social superiority in relation to other groups of the population. The exploitation of peasant labor, the collection of taxes and the holding of large amounts of land were only an accessory power. Thus, what guaranteed the social superiority of the nobility and the clergy was social prestige and refined habits of life, based on a secular tradition.
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
