>>509897018
>Not since Louis XIV anyways. He neutered the nobility and replaced them with bureaucrats

The process began with Francis I, but when Louis XIV took office, his first piece of advice was: "Watch your ass, there are a bunch of nobles all over France seeking power and grandeur". When Louis XV took office, most of this sword-wielding nobility was co-opted into the court society's theater, with all their military talent and lust for power reduced to gossip, banquets (yes, they became fatties), theater, concerts, adultery, mischief, and everything else like this shit:

>>509877248
>>509877330
>>509877396
>>509877447

It's a very cunning process, but one that irreparably damaged French society.