By a royal decision in 1588, one of the four secretaries of state of Henry III, Forget de Fresne, was given the responsibility of negotiating with the provinces which had large Huguenot populations (Languedoc, Dauphiné, Orléanais, Maine, Anjou, Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois).
Trusted by Henry IV, Forget de Fresne became the principal author of the Edict of Nantes (which he co-signed), and organizer of the department of Protestant affairs.
As public opinion in the 17th century became increasingly hostile to the Huguenots, the secretaries fulfilled their duties in applying more rigorous measures on the Protestants.
Other than the uprising of the Camisards, the secretaries' duties were focused on two areas: managing the spoliated goods of fugitive Huguenots (which could be transferred to their nearest relatives, provided they were Catholics, but only after extensive legal examination and with the approval of the "Conseil des dépêches") and – at the request of provincial intendants – the removal of children from families suspected of not having fully converted and of placing them in foster care in convents or in homes for new Catholics.
Disagreeing with the tolerant policies of the last years of the reign of Louis XV, and with those that the arrival of Turgot to power seemed to predict, he resigned from the post in 1775.