In the course of the rebellion against the
Habsburg emperor
Charles V, several
Protestant Imperial
princes met at
Lochau Castle near
Torgau in May 1551. Here the receiving
Wettin elector
Maurice of Saxony forged an alliance with Duke
John Albert I of Mecklenburg, Prince
William IV of Hesse, whose father Landgrave
Philip I was jailed by the emperor, the
Hohenzollern margrave
Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach and his cousin Duke
Albert of Prussia. Dissatisfied with the
Interim decreed by Charles V at the 1548
Diet of Augsburg, the insurgents were full of resolution to defend Protestantism and–not least–their autonomy against the Imperial central authority. They agreed to establish contacts with the Catholic French king Henry II, disregarding his oppression of the Protestant
Huguenots. In autumn Henry declared
war against Charles V and prepared to march against the Empire up to the
Rhine River. On 15 January 1552, he signed the
Treaty of Chambord with Maurice of Saxony and his Protestant allies, whereby the French conquests were legitimised ahead of time. The princes acknowledged the king's lordship as "
Vicar of the Empire" over the
Imperial cities of
Metz,
Toul and
Verdun, as well as
Cambrai "and other towns of the Empire that do not speak German". The insurgents in turn received subsidies and military assistance from the French, their troops moved into the Habsburg hereditary lands and laid siege to the emperor at
Innsbruck, while his brother
Ferdinand I entered into negotiations that led to the revocation of the Augsburg Interim by the 1552
Peace of Passau. Image:Cathedrale metz 2003.jpg|
Metz Cathedral Image:Cathédrale de Toul-Façade.JPG|
Toul Cathedral Image:55 VERDUN Cathedrale+Cloitre.JPG|
Verdun Cathedral Backed by Duke
Francis of Guise and his brother Cardinal
Charles of Lorraine, King Henry II of France upon his agreement with the Protestant princes had started his
Voyage d’Allemagne "for the sake of German liberties". On
Palm Sunday 1552 French troops under the command of
Anne de Montmorency in a surprise attack moved into the walls of Metz, followed by the occupation of Toul on 13 April. Henry then turned against the
Lorraine capital
Nancy, where he had the minor duke
Charles III abducted to the French court in
Paris. On 18 April the king celebrated his entry into Metz and, after a failed attack on the
Imperial City of Strasbourg, returned from the Rhine to move into Verdun on 12 June. At that time, the French had occupied the three Imperial cities as well as the territory of the surrounding Prince-bishoprics. From the emperor's perspective, Elector Maurice and his allies had no right to legally dispose of Imperial territory, Charles V started a campaign against the French in order to reconquer the occupied dioceses culminating in the
Siege of Metz from 19 October 1552 to 2 January 1553. The expedition ultimately failed, when the Imperial troops were defeated by the French forces under Duke Francis of Guise in the 1554
Battle of Renty. When the emperor, worn out and exhausted, abdicated in 1556, his successor Ferdinand I discontinued all attempts to regain the Three Bishoprics. and
departments King Henry II left a permanent garrison in each of the cities and gradually subjected their citizens to his royal authority. The townsmen of Metz filed several petitions to the
Imperial Diet for redress, but the retrieval of the lost Three Bishoprics was no longer a main concern of the Empire during the ongoing
confessionalization. Initiated by
Cardinal Richelieu, the
Trois-Évêchés received a certain autonomy with a provincial
parlement installed in 1633 in Metz, dominated by the city's
patriciate. Civil commotions decreased as the cities prospered under French rule, though the implementation of the
gabelle of salt sparked some unrest in Metz. When King
Louis XIV acceded to the throne in 1643, he confirmed the privileges of the Metz, Toul and Verdun citizens as his "good and faithful subjects". The acquisition of the Three Bishoprics was finally recognized by the Holy Roman Empire in the 1648
Peace of Westphalia. The province's territory was further enlarged by parts of the
Duchy of Luxembourg around
Thionville (
Diedenhofen), ceded to France according to the 1659
Treaty of the Pyrenees, as well as by several Lorraine villages annexed in 1661. The
Diocese of Saint-Dié, created in 1777 and sometimes called the "Fourth Bishopric of Lorraine" (""), is not related historically to the Three Bisphoprics. == Sources ==