Louis XIV had one of his main goals: to preserve his royal authority through his reign and to ensure his absolutism. Many successes were achieved during his reign. He was able to manage the nobility and make them perform the levers and couchers until his passing. There were some failures, however. Huguenots among other religious minorities became an increasing problem to him and armed soldiers had to be placed inside their homes to convert them.
As we have already mentioned, the levers and couchers were key to his authority. These were ceremonies during which Louis was made to get out of his bed and get in bed (morning/night, respectively). As the nobility fought for positions in these ceremonies, it shows the power he had over them. The position held in these ceremonies would indicate how much favour a noble will have with king. Those holding the highest ranking positions in these ceremonies would also show how well they were able to help the king get up and go to bed. This was because he was being controlled by Madame de Maintenon in all aspects of his religious mind-set. He also had to surrender his power and authority through the bull Unigenitus, which was used to allow him to persecute Jansenists in order for him to have his way with those in his own country. Louis failed because he lost control of religious matters within his country and gave it to the Pope from Louis and Gallicans. It was an inverted version of his original policy.
Some might argue that Unigenitus was successful in maintaining authority because it legitimized Louis’ reasons for persecution of Jansenists. He had the Pope perform Louis’ will by calling them heretics. This would have meant that his relationship to the Pope was much better and that it would be easier for other Catholic countries to oppose him. This view, however, is less convincing.
Louis’s failure to keep authority in religion was also evident with the Huguenots. They became a growing problem throughout his reign. Louis’ initial success in eliminating the Huguenots was matched by his more moderate policies like paying them conversion (Casse de Conversions), which used money from vacant bishoprics. They were also prevented from joining certain professions and closed their schools and churches. 750,000 Huguenots converted between this and 1800.
Louis wanted to accelerate the time they would disappear so he repealed the Edict of Nantes. This made their religion illegal and led to 200,000 people fleeing to other Protestant countries like the Holy Roman Empire or the Dutch. This was a terrible failure. Because heresy survived, the Huguenots were now able to have the sympathy from other nations. France’s economic enemies also gained their abilities, skills, and knowledge of France. France’s authority was diminished since Louis was now being called a dictator/tyrant/despot – both by the Pope as well as other Catholic kings. France suffered a lot long-term because these were also the people leading the revolution against Louis XVI’s Ancient Regime in France.
Louis XIV had a huge decline in authority after 1685. He relinquished control to Madame de Maintenon but also gave the power to a small religious group. However, it can be argued that in non-religious/foreign matters that Louis did maintain at least a certain degree of control since his people would at least fear him and continue to perform the Lever and Coucher.
