The Edict of Beaulieu (also known at the time as the Peace of Monsieur) was promulgated from Beaulieu-lès-Loches on 6 May 1576 by

Henry III of France Henry III (french: Henri III, né Alexandre Édouard; pl, Henryk Walezy; lt, Henrikas Valua; 19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589, as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of ...

, who was pressured by

Alençon Alençon (, , ; nrf, Alençoun) is a commune in Normandy, France, capital of the Orne department. It is situated west of Paris. Alençon belongs to the intercommunality of Alençon (with 52,000 people). History The name of Alençon is firs ...

's support of the Protestant army besieging Paris that spring. The Edict, which was negotiated by the king's brother, ''Monsieur''— François, duc d'Alençon, who was now made duc d'Anjou— gave Huguenots the right of public worship for their religion, thenceforth officially called the ''religion prétendue réformée'' ("supposed reformed religion"), throughout France, except at Paris and at Court. Huguenots were permitted to own and build churches, to hold consistories and synods, and occupy eight fortified towns called '' places de sûreté''. In eight of the ''

parlement A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fre ...

s'', chambers were created called ''mis-parties'' because the same number of Catholics and Protestants sat in these tribunals. Additionally, there was to be a disclaimer of the

Massacre of St. Bartholomew The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (french: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French W ...

, and the families which had suffered from it were to be returned to positions of prominence and fairly compensated. These large concessions to the Huguenots and the approbation given to their political organization led to the formation of the Catholic League, which was organized by Catholics anxious to defend their religion. The King held a '' lit de justice'' in the Parlement of Paris on 14 May to subvent pending opposition in the strongly Catholic ''parlement'' and to ensure that the Edict was duly inscribed.According to the papal nuncio, Antonio Maria Salviati, "La corte non voleva emologare le lettere, ma il Re in persona vi è andato..." Holt 1988, ''eo. loc.''. In December 1576, however, the States-General of Blois declared itself against the Edict of Beaulieu. Thereupon the Protestants took up arms under the leadership of Henry of Navarre, who, escaping from the Court, had returned to the Calvinism which he had abjured at the time of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The advantage was on the Catholic side, thanks to some successes achieved by the François, Duke of Anjou, duc d'Anjou. In September 1577, the Treaty of Bergerac, confirmed by the Edict of Poitiers, left the Huguenots the free exercise of their religion only in the suburbs of one town in each bailiwick (''bailliage''), and in those places where it had been practiced before the outbreak of hostilities and which they occupied at the current date.

References

Sources

*Pierre Miquel, ''Les Guerres de religion'', Fayard, 1980. . *Wilkinson, Maurice, "The Wars of Religion in the Périgord", ''The English Historical Review'' 21, No. 84., October 1906, (Oxford University Press). {{Edicts and Treaties of the French Wars of Religion 1576 works French Wars of Religion 1576 in France Treaties of the Kingdom of France, Beaulieu Edicts, Beaulieu Henry III of France 1576 in Christianity 1576 treaties

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