One of Louis XIV's main policies was to maintain his royal authority throughout his reign in order to effectively impose 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 did the rising and going to bed. However, there were also a number of failures in maintaining authority, including the Huguenots (among other religious minorities) becoming a source of increasing disruption to him to the point where armed soldiers had to be placed in their homes for them to convert. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay One of the successes in maintaining one's authority was, as mentioned earlier, lever and fold. These were essentially ceremonies in which the French nobility were obliged to watch Louis get up and go to bed (morning and evening respectively). This demonstrates the hold he continued to have over the nobility who competed for positions in these ceremonies in order to help the king go to bed and get up. The positions held in these ceremonies showed the favor a noble would have with the king and those who held the most important positions in the ceremony were often the most successful through its system of patronage (rewarding nobles for being of courtiers) which was incredibly successful. However, one of the failures in maintaining his authority was his relationship with the pope and the papacy during the last years of his reign. Indeed, not only was he influenced by Madame de Maintenon in all his religious questions and mentalities, but he also had to renounce his own power and will by repairing his relationship with the Pope through the bull Unigenitus (used as authorization to persecute the Jansenists) in order to impose his authority on those in his own country who dared to defy him. The reason this is such a failure for Louis is that he gave up his own control over religious matters in his country by restoring it from the power of Louis and the Gallicans to the Pope, a complete reversal of his initial policy. Others might argue. however, this Unigenitus managed to maintain authority since he legitimized his reasons for persecuting the Jansenists by making the Pope do what Louis wanted by calling them heretics of the Catholic faith, meaning his will was demanded . It would also have meant that his relations with the pope would have improved considerably and other Catholic nations would have less reason to turn against him. However, this view is much less convincing. Another failure concerning religion in its inability to maintain its authority was the issue of the Huguenots, who became an increasing annoyance to Louis throughout his reign. Louis initially succeeded in his policy of getting rid of the Huguenots with his less radical policies such as paying them to convert (Casse de Conversions) which used money earned from vacant bishoprics. He also made their lives generally difficult by not allowing them to pursue certain professions and closing their churches and schools. During this period, 750,000 Huguenots converted, and it was thought that by 1800 they would be statistically insignificant. However, Louis wanted to quickly increase the rate of their departures 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 English. This is a failure.