The Edict of Boulogne, also called the Edict of Pacification of Boulogne and the Peace of La Rochelle, was signed in July, 1573 [1] by King Charles IX of France in the Château de Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne. It was officially registered by the Parlement of Paris on 11 August 1573.[2] The treaty officially ended the fourth phase of the French Wars of Religion (set off by the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in August 1572; this phase of the wars included the siege of La Rochelle (1572-1573) and the Siege of Sancerre).
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The treaty severely curtailed many of the rights previously granted to the French Protestants. Based on the terms of the treaty, all Huguenots were granted amnesty for their past actions and the freedom of belief. However, they were permitted the freedom to worship only within the three towns of La Rochelle, Montauban, and Nîmes, and there only privately within their own residences; Protestant nobles with the right of high-justice were permitted to celebrate marriages and baptisms, but only before an assembly limited to ten persons outside of their family.[3]
Compared to the previous Peace of Saint-Germain in 1570, the Treaty did impose more constraints in the Huguenots, as they retained freedom of worship but could only worship freely in their private homes in these three cities. Outside of these cities, Protestantism worship was forbidden completely.[4]
Due to pressure from the Catholic League Henry III of France had to cancel the Peace of La Rochelle, re-criminalizing Protestantism and beginning a new chapter in the French Wars of Religion, that would ultimately lead to the Huguenot rebellions and the last Siege of La Rochelle in 1627-28.
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