Vervins Picardie France

Albert, while pursuing the war as well as he can, has made overtures for peace with Spain's enemies, but only the French King had been disposed to enter official negotiations.

The broader conflict involving France and Spain ends with the Peace of Vervins, signed between the representatives of Henry IV of France and Philip II of Spain, on May 2, 1598, at the small town of Vervins in Picardy, northern France, close to the territory of the Habsburg Netherlands.

The terms have been worked out under the auspices of the papal legate of Clement VIII, Alessandro de' Medici—the future Pope Leo XI.

Spain gives up its conquests, thereby restoring the situation of Cateau Cambrésis.

The Edict of Nantes and this treaty bring to an effective end the Wars of Religion in France, which had spread to a conflict European-wide.

By its terms, Philip recognizes the formerly Protestant Henry as King of France and withdraws his forces from the French territory they still occupy, depriving the remnants of the Catholic League of their support.

France tacitly accepts the Spanish occupation of the prince-archbishopric of Cambray.

It has pulled out of the war, but maintains its financial support for the Dutch Republic.

The peace leaves the current but separate question of Saluzzo unsolved.

The parties to the treaty are hosted by Guillemette de Coucy, co-seigneur of Vervins, in her Châteauneuf de Vervins, in a region, the Thiérache, that had suffered much in the recent fighting, as its numerous sixteenth-century fortified churches still bear witness today.

Historians see this in retrospect s the final defeat of Philip II, who had furthered dynastic causes through championing ultra-Catholic principles, and a climacteric that began the long downfall of Habsburg Spain and the gradual rise in European hegemony of France during the ensuing Grand Siècle.