Edict of Boulogne

[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).

The treaty severely curtailed many of the rights granted to the French Protestants in the previous Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

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.

[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, which did not conclude until Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598.