Levée (ceremony)

The levee (from the French word lever, meaning "getting up" or "rising") was traditionally a daily moment of intimacy and accessibility to a monarch or leader. It started out as a royal custom, but in America, it later came to refer to a reception by the king’s representatives and, even later, by the president.

In Einhard's Life of Charlemagne the author recounts the Emperor's practice, when he was dressing and putting on his shoes, to invite his friends to come in, and in case of a dispute brought to his attention, "he would order the disputants to be brought in there and then, hear the case as if he were sitting in tribunal and pronounce a judgement."

By the second half of the sixteenth century, it had become a formal event, requiring invitation. In 1563 Catherine de' Medici wrote in advice to her son, the King of France, to do as his father (Henry II) had done and uphold the practice of lever. Catherine describes that Henry II allowed his subjects, from nobles to household servants, to come in while he dressed. She states this pleased his subjects and improved their opinion of him.

This practice was raised to a ceremonial custom at the court of King Louis XIV. In the court etiquette that Louis formalized, the set of extremely elaborated conventions was divided into the grand lever, attended by the full court in the gallery outside the king's bedchamber, and the petit lever that transpired in degrees in the king's chamber, where only a very select group might serve the king as he rose and dressed. In fact the king had often risen early and put in some hours hunting before returning to bed for the start of the lever. Louis's grandson King Philip V of Spain and his queen typically spent all the morning in bed, as reported by Saint-Simon, to avoid the pestering by ministers and courtiers that began with the lever.

The king's retiring ceremony proceeded in reverse order and was known as the coucher.

The successors of Louis XIV were not as passionate about the Sun King's daily routine and over time the frequency of the lever and coucher decreased, much to the dismay of their courtiers.

When the court of Charles II of England adopted the custom, first noted as an English usage in 1672, it was called a levée. In the 18th century, as the fashionable dinner hour was incrementally moved later into the afternoon, the morning reception of the British monarch, attended only by gentlemen, was shifted forward towards noon.

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