ing Henry IV of
France, stayed in Castres in 1585. The Protestants of Castres were brought to
terms, however, by King Louis XIII in 1629, and Richelieu came himself to
Castres to have its fortifications dismantled. Nonetheless, after these
religious wars, the town, now in peace, enjoyed a period of rapid expansion.
Business and traditional commercial activities revived, in particular fur and
leather-dressing, tanning, and above all wool trade. Culture flourished anew,
with the founding of the Academy of Castres in 1648. Castres was turned by the
Catholic Church into an active center of Counter-Reformation, with the
establishments of several convents in town, and the building of a renowned
bishop's palace by Mgr. Tubœuf, still the most famous monument in town today. A
new cathedral was also built, after the destruction of the religious wars.
Perhaps even more important, Castres was made the seat of the
Chambre de l'Édit of the Parliament
of Toulouse, a court of justice detached from the Parliament of Toulouse and in
charge of dealing with the cases involving the Protestants of Languedoc, a
measure of protection granted to them by the Edict of Nantes. This court
attracted lots of business to Castres. In 1665, there were 7,000 inhabitants in
Castres, 4,000 of whom Catholic, and 3,000 Protestant.
In 1670 however, the Chambre de
l'Édit was transferred to Castelnaudary, much to the discontent of even
the catholic citizens of Castres, who lost a major source of business and
revenue with the departure of the lawyers and the plaintiffs. The Revocation of
the Edict of Nantes soon followed, and Castres suffered a lot when a great
number of Protestants chose to go into exile. Then came the plague of 1720-1721
and the fire of 1724. Last but not least, Castres lost its liberal charter in
1758. In the 1760s, a few years after the famous Calas Affair
