text: Louis's extravagance at Versailles extended far beyond the scope of elaborate court rituals. He took delivery of an African 
  elephant as a gift from the king of Portugal.[63] He encouraged leading nobles to live at Versailles. This, along with the prohibition 
  of private armies, prevented them from passing time on their own estates and in their regional power bases, from which they 
  historically waged local wars and plotted resistance to royal authority. Louis thus compelled and seduced the old military 
  aristocracy (the "nobility of the sword") into becoming his ceremonial courtiers, further weakening their power. In their place, he 
  raised commoners or the more recently ennobled bureaucratic aristocracy (the "nobility of the robe"). He judged that royal 
  authority thrived more surely by filling high executive and administrative positions with these men because they could be more 
  easily dismissed than nobles of ancient lineage and entrenched influence. It is believed that Louis's policies were rooted in his 