Officially called RÉGLEMENT portant que nul ne pourra être proposé à des sous - lieutenances s'il n'a fait preuve de quatre générations de noblesse (i.e. Regulation concerning that no one shall be proposed for a sub-lieutenancy if he has not provided proof of four generations of nobility), the ordinance was approved by Louis XVI on May 22, 1781.
[1] The edict required all officer candidates in the French (i.e. non-foreign) infantry, cavalry and dragoons to prove four degrees of nobility in their patrilineal line.
In 1784, the provisions were extended to the hussars, mounted chasseurs, and the so-called foreign regiments (Régiments étrangers) of infantry, which had in fact long been predominantly French.
By contrast, the robe, or civic, nobility were French financiers, merchants, and real estate moguls who achieved political power through monetary advancement.
[1] Their status was newly gained relative to that of the sword nobility, often owing their position to personal success and/or intermediate family connections.
[4] These rich aristocrats were not bourgeois, yet their lack of long-term patrilineal legacies prevented them from being accepted among the court nobles.