text: The French were nevertheless forced to retreat from most of the Dutch Republic, which deeply shocked Louis; he retreated to St 
  Germain for a time, where no one, except a few intimates, was allowed to disturb him.[47] French military advantages allowed 
  them however to hold their ground in Alsace and the Spanish Netherlands while retaking Franche-Comté. By 1678, mutual 
  exhaustion led to the Treaty of Nijmegen, which was generally settled in France's favour and allowed Louis to intervene in the 
  Scanian War. Despite the military defeat, his ally Sweden regained much of what it had lost under the 1679 treaties of Saint- 
  Germain-en-Laye, Fontainebleau and Lund imposed on Denmark–Norway and Brandenburg.[48] Yet Louis's two primary goals, 
  the destruction of the Dutch Republic and the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands, had failed.[49] 
  
  Louis was at the height of his power, but at the cost of uniting his opponents; this increased as he continued his expansion. In 
  1679, he dismissed his foreign minister Simon Arnauld, marquis de Pomponne, because he was seen as having compromised too 
  much with the allies. Louis maintained the strength of his army, but in his next series of territorial claims avoided using military 
  force alone. Rather, he combined it with legal pretexts in his efforts to augment the boundaries of his kingdom. Contemporary 
  treaties were intentionally phrased ambiguously. Louis established the Chambers of Reunion to determine the full extent of his 
  rights and obligations under those treaties. 