The edict on second marriages is a regulation signed by Francis II in August 1560. It concerns widows who remarry, in order to prevent them from making excessive donations to their new husbands and to force them to reserve the assets they had acquired from the generosity of their first husbands for the children born from that union.

This edict was written by the council of the Hospital Chancellery for the occasion of the second marriage of Lady Anne d’Alegre, a widow with seven children who married Mre George de Clermont and made him a huge donation.

In effect the preamble and the first right of this edict only deals with women who are remarrying. The reason given in the preamble is that widows with children are often invited and solicited into new marriages, so that they abandon their assets to their new husbands, forgetting their natural duty toward their children. Beyond the resulting in quarrels and divisions between mothers and children, such donations cause great distress within good families, and consequently reduces the strength of the public state. The ancient emperors had already addressed it with several good laws, and the King, understanding the weakness of the sex and for the same reasons, praises and approves of these laws, adopting their arrangements in two articles called the first and the second rights of the edict on the second marriages .

The first one states that widows with children, or grandchildren, in case they contract another union, shall not be allowed, in any circumstances, to give a greater portion of their assets – furniture, acquest, or acquisition they made from their first marriage; nor from their own belongings — to their new husbands or to the father, mother or children of the above mentioned husbands or any other person who can presumably be a fraudulent third party, than to any of their children or the children of these children. In case there is an unequal division of the assets among the children or the children of the children, the donations she made to her new husband shall be reduced and measured according to the person who will receive the least.

Although this first count mentions only women, jurisdiction has been extended to men as was published in the ruling mentioned by Mr. Louët; lett. N. n. 1.2&3.

It is stipulated by the second count that in regard to some of the assets of these widows, acquired through gifts and the generosity of their deceased husbands, they shall not be able to give any part to their new husbands. They shall however be obliged to reserve them for the children born from the first marriage. The same shall be observed for the assets acquired by the husbands through gifts and generosity of their deceased wives, so that they can not be donated to the second wives, but so that husbands are obliged to keep them for their children born from their first wives. The same article adds that the edict is not intended to provide women with more power over their assets than permitted by the rules of customs of the region. See Second Marriage.