The Italian Wars which resumed in 1551, led the following year to the French occupation of the Three Bishoprics, strategic cities in Alsace. Henry II, delighted by the acquisitions, visited Metz in 1552. Catherine de Medici was placed at the head of a regency council, and set herself about governing with considerable energy. One of her first acts was to write to Charles in his capacity as governor of the city of Paris urging him to have preachers who denounced Henry's alliance with Protestant princes of the Holy Roman Empire arrested. Charles was to find new clergy who would support the king in his taxation of the church to fund the war effort. As Bishop of Laon, he was granted the title of 'peer of France', he maintained this title, even after he resigned the office in 1552.
