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How did the Peace of Alais change the rights and military power of the Huguenots?

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Full-length portrait of Cardinal Richelieu by Philippe de Champaigne, showing him in red clerical robes holding a red book, standing beside a balustrade with a draped curtain behind. — Cardinal Richelieu As both statesman and churchman, Cardinal Richelieu was the acknowledged architect of France's greatness in the 17th century. In 1640, when this full-length portrait was painted (likely by Philippe de Champaigne), he was embroiled in a dispute with the pope and other religious controversies along with many other consequences of expanding French power across Europe. He would die two years later, facing conspiracies against his life and suffering ill health.

The Peace of Alais, signed on June 28, 1629, fundamentally altered the status of the Huguenots in France by dismantling their capacity to act as a political and military challenge to the state.1

While the agreement allowed the Huguenots to retain their freedom of conscience, it stripped them of all the military advantages they had previously held. Specifically, Cardinal de Richelieu annulled the political and military clauses of the Edict of Nantes, which had previously permitted the Protestants to maintain fortified strongholds, or places de sûreté.12

By removing these military protections and ending their status as a distinct political entity, the Peace of Alais effectively integrated the Huguenots as loyal subjects of the king, thereby advancing Richelieu’s goal of establishing absolute royal authority and domestic order.13