One of Louis XIV's main policies was to maintain his royal authority throughout his reign in order to effectively enforce his absolutism. During his reign, there were many successes including the fact that he managed to control the nobility to such an extent until his death that they would perform the draft and the coucher. However, there were also a number of failures in maintaining authority, including the fact that Huguenots (among other religious minorities) became an increasing nuisance to him to the point that armed soldiers had to be placed in their homes for them to convert. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayOne of the successes in maintaining his authority was, as mentioned above, the draft and the coucher. These were essentially ceremonies where the French nobility were forced to watch Louis rise and go to bed (morning and evening respectively). This demonstrates the hold it continued to have on the nobility as they competed for positions in these ceremonies to help the king go to bed and rise. The positions held in these ceremonies showed how much favor a noble would have with the king and those who held the most important positions in the ceremony were often the ones who succeeded the most through his system of patronage (rewarding nobles for being flatterers) which was incredibly successful. However, a failure to maintain his authority was his relationship with the Pope and the Papacy during the last years of his reign. This is because not only was he influenced by Madame de Maintenon in all his religious matters/mindsets, but he also had to give up his own power and will by repairing his relationship with the Pope through the bull Unigenitus (used as permission to persecute the Jansenists) to assert his authority over those in his country who dared to challenge him. The reason this is such a failure for Louis is that he gave up his control over religious matters in his country by returning it from the power of Louis and the Gallicans to the Pope, a complete reversal of his original policy. Others may argue however that Unigenitus was successful in maintaining authority as he legitimized his reasons for the persecution of the Jansenists by making the Pope behave as Louis wanted by calling them heretics of the Catholic faith, which therefore means that his will was enforceable. It would also mean that his relationship with the Pope would improve greatly and that there would be less reason for other Catholic nations to turn against him. However, this view is much less convincing. Another failure involving religion in failing to maintain authority was the issue of the Huguenots, who became a growing nuisance to Louis during his reign. Louis was initially successful in his policy of liberating the Huguenots with his less radical policies such as paying them to convert (Casse de Conversions) which used money earned from vacant bishoprics. It also made their lives generally difficult by not allowing them to enter certain professions and by closing their churches and schools. During this period 750,000 Huguenots were converted, and it was thought that by 1800 they would be statistically insignificant. However, Louis wanted to quickly increase the attrition rate and revoked the Edict of Nantes, which made their religion illegal, leading to 200,000 fleeing the country and joining other Protestant nations such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch, and the English. This is a huge failure because it meant that the heresy still survived, the Huguenots now.