The Treaty of Chambord was a typical international political example for an agreement at the expense of other parties ("ius quaesitum tertio", in English a "third-party beneficiary contract", in
French “promesse de porte-fort”). The
princes acting on the
German side had given
France covenants, which to make they had had neither the right nor any authorization. They ceded rights over
imperial territory to a foreign ruler, over which - not only, but mostly because neither was anything near being their very own - they did not execute anything such as a command. Thus the accord was of no account according to judicial standards. According to the text of the treaty, the Three Bishoprics were at the time "not of german language", with the implication that in the eyes of the German signatories, the transfer was ultimately "limited" to non-German lands. France used the convention as a pretence to militarily occupy the Three Bishoprics, to subsequently remove them out of the
collective of the Holy Roman Empire and to incorporate them into its own territory. This approach of the French crown was symptomatic for the French policy during the next decades. It was directed at the utilisation of conflicts between the Emperor and German princes and to support the emperor's respective opponents, so to take own advantage out of it. ==See also==