Peace of Cateau: Cambre’sis (April 2–3 1559)
by Two treaties were agreed that finally ended the Italian Wars (1494–1559) between Habsburg and Valois waged on-and-off for 65 years.
The settlement was prompted by French defeats at Saint-Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558), and the rising need of Henri II to deal with militant Protestantism in France. On April 2, 1559, representatives of France and England signed a treaty whereby Elizabeth I agreed to withdraw from military commitments in France. The next day, representatives of Henri II and Philip II of Spain signed the more important agreement wherein Henri conceded the key point at issue in the war: Habsburg claims to primacy in north Italy.
Specifically, France returned control of Piedmont and Savoy to the Duke of Savoy while recovering Charolais. Paris retained control of more important and defensible territories, notably Saluzzo, Calais, and the key fortresses and bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. Spain acquired Franche-Comte´. The treaty was cemented with dynastic marriages between the royal houses of Savoy and France, and France and Spain. Cateau-Cambre´sis codified de facto Spanish supremacy in Italy, granting legal rights which Madrid defended for the next 150 years. It gravely weakened the Valois since most Frenchmen regarded it as a national humiliation. In sum, a temporary accommodation was reached between the greatest powers in Europe. As France fell into civil war, Philip II was freed to resume twin crusades against Islam and Protestantism.
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