Apart from being there to pay homage to the King, what was the principal reason why King Louis XIV of France wanted to have his court, and by definition the senior members of the French aristocracy, with him at the elaborate Palace of Versailles, located 20 kilometres from Paris?
Answer: If they were at Versailles devoting themselves to minor intrigues and squabbling as to who had the most influence at court, such as who handed the King his shirt when he dressed in the morning, they could not be in the provinces of France potentially plotting insurrection against the crown or fomenting civil war.
Source: A History Of Modern France by Alfred Cobban
