The Three Bishoprics (French: Trois-Évêchés) constituted a province of pre-RevolutionaryFrance consisting of the bisphoprics of Verdun, Metz, and Toul in the Lorraine region. These were territories of the Holy Roman Empire until they were seized by French King Henry II between April and June of 1552. The conquest was legitimised ahead of time by a treaty with the Protestant Imperial princes and the Ottoman Empire against the Habsburgs, signed at Chambord on January 15, 1552, which confirmed the French king's lordship over Metz, Toul, Verdun, "and other towns of the Empire that do not speak German".
The Diocese of Saint-Dié, created in 1777 and sometimes called the "Fourth Bishopric of Lorraine" (« le Quatrième Évêché lorrain »), is not related historically to the Three Bisphoprics.
