Three bishoprices

The Three bishoprices were the territories concerned with the bishops of Metz, Toul and Verdun which, then pertaining to the Saint Germanic Roman Empire, was occupied by Henri II in 1552 and was placed under French supervision until their final annexation by France in 1648 under the terms of the Traités of Westphalia. These territories and the duchies of Bar and Lorraine formed a territorial mosaic source of conflict.

Diplomatic origin

In 1551 the German Protestant princes fights about it against Charles Quint seek the support of king de France. In Lochau, close to Torgau, an agreement is signed which envisages the financial participation and soldier of France with their action. With Chambord, the January 15th 1552, is signed a treaty which provides that the king Henri II will occupy, for strategic reasons, in the capacity as vicar of the Empire, the towns of Metz, Toul and Verdun, “and other cities of the Empire not speaking German”.

Military origin

The “voyage from Germany” east led by the king Henri II, as “a defender of Germanic freedoms”. The day of the Branches 1552, the French troops, following a Stratagem, penetrate in Metz, city commercial, rich and managed by a Oligarchie jealous of its rights, the paraiges.

Then the king himself enters to Toul and passes to Nancy where it relieves the duchess-regent arbitrarily and takes along the small duke still minor Charles III to make it raise at the court of France, before making “his merry entry” with Metz the Easter Monday and to continue towards the the Rhine. However, it will not be able to seize Strasbourg. Strengthened and defended by the Duke of Own way, Metz resists Charles Quint which, despaired, raises the seat the January 2nd 1553. The emperor will die five years later, having given up his loads and saying: " If my heart were opened, one would find the name of Metz" there;.

Between 1552 and 1648, in the three towns of Metz, Toul and Verdun joined together thus by a diplomatic artifice, settles an original mode, that of protection, where the old capacities of the cities resulting from the Saint Empire are absorbed little by little by the organizations set up by the royal administration. The cities receive a permanent garrison, the emperor officially continuing to have the appearance of a sovereign. Under the vigorous impulse of Richelieu, the Parliament, created with Metz in 1633, is the most active craftsman of progress of the royal authority, dispossessing of its capacities the Master alderman.

The edict of December 1633 removes the seal of the city, the eagle with the spread wings, that Metz, Toul and Verdun, in the capacity as imperial cities, had the right to relate to their weapons. At the same time, the Gabelle, tax on salt, is introduced to the great displeasure population. Transferred to Toul, the Parliament is replaced with Metz by an intendant, representative alive and omnipotent of the king.

In 1648, the Traités of Westphalia confirm the transfer of the Three bishoprices by the Empire. But, as of its advent, Louis XIV, confirming the privileges of the cities, had gathered them under the name of “its goods and faithful prone”.

The évêché of Saint-Dié, created in 1777 and sometimes called the Fourth Lorraine Évêché, is not concerned with the historical notion of the “Three bishoprices”.

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