Court Presentation- Honors of the Court Part 6

"Thus, anyone who wanted to be admitted to enjoy the honors of the court was to first have proof of enoblement dating from the year 1400 and which would be established, as with large noble chapters, by three original titles of each degree of parentage. Some writers, among others the author of Memories of the Marquise de Crequy, have claimed that we chose the year 1399 as a starting point, because this date was anterior to the oldest nobility in memory of which there are traces, and they added that the family of Gamaches Rouault, ennobled in 1400 for services rendered to the crown in the office of high treasurer of France, had provided the first example. This assertion is a gross error; the letters patent of nobility of Clement Rouault, whose outcome was the home of Gamache, are the May 24, 1317, not 1400. Philip the Bold had already, in the year 1270, conceded letters of nobility. Philip of Valois and John the Good would not be happy to make themselves noble in urgent need of money in 1339 and in 1361 they were granted the authority to create a fee to the chambers of accounts and to the delegated Commissioners in the provinces."

Ah, titles for money; a win for the crown, a concern for those already-ennobled. I think we can guess how that went over.